


Breaking

by Gaqalesqua



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Canon Divergence, Drug Addiction, F/M, Nora is Wasteland Mom, Pregnancy, Slow Burn, fear her hugs and nurturing nature
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-19
Updated: 2017-01-26
Packaged: 2018-05-21 23:07:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 49,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6061566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gaqalesqua/pseuds/Gaqalesqua
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nora's world is gone. This new one is determined to eat her. But Nora's never been one to be easily consumed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The first time the world ended, Nora Pendleton was watching the television with her husband.

That morning, she woke up in her husband’s arms, pleasantly warm and content. They had dressed, shared the bathroom, and cooed over their son. Codsworth prepared them coffee and breakfast, and they held hands as they ate.

A Vault-Tec van pulled up outside, and minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

“Him again,” Nate muttered. “Keeps asking to see you. Something about your…service to the country?”

“Weird,” she murmured. “I mean, you were the soldier.”

“Well, you were the one who agreed not to tell the press of America they drugged your husband and his companions before they sent them into battle.”

“…true.”

Nate leaned over and kissed her cheek.

“Still not sure why I didn’t blow that thing wide open,” she muttered. He stroked the back of her hand.

“Because I asked you not to,” he reminded her gently. “They sent Rog to a medical facility, you know he’ll be fine.”

“Hope Mads will be okay.”

“She is. She phoned yesterday to say he’d called her. Go answer that Vault-Tec guy before he breaks the door down.”

“Sure,” she chuckled.

Twenty minutes after consigning her soul to the clutches of Vault-Tec, a bomb hit the east coast, and the Pendletons vanished into Vault 111.

She woke up twice.

Nate woke up once.

Nate never woke up again.


	2. Chapter 2

The second time Nora woke up after the world ended, she could feel phantom pain on her hands from where she’d beaten them senseless on the glass, watching her husband die, before the cold of the cryo took her in again and sent her back to sleep. She fell from the pod, almost hitting the ground as she did, her feet barely catching her in time. The thin blue Vault suit was useless against the chill that bit into her, and she wrapped her arms around her body and shivered, her teeth chattering, and staggered over to the pod opposite her, ignoring the ragged tear in her throat every time she breathed. It was like inhaling razors.

She slammed her hands onto the pad, tottering back when it opened, and oh _god_ , her husband’s body in full view like this didn’t make it any easier. He was _dead_ , the dark blood frozen just above his chest, a hole in the suit that punched into his heart and she felt it mirrored in her own. His wedding band still gleamed on his finger, and she touched his frozen face as the first semblance of warmth returned to her. It came through tears, the hot salt cutting through the frosty patches of her skin like a knife.

“I’ll find who did this,” she sobbed. “And I’ll get Shaun back. I promise.”

She couldn’t look at him anymore, shutting the cryo pod, examining her other neighbours. She was almost sick at the discovery that they were all dead. Limbs still weak, she stumbled her way through the Vault, managing to retrieve a shock baton, and by the time she hacked her way through the security terminals, the bright blue was covered in roach guts and she had as many guns as she could pick up, as well as a clean suit she’d found.

Nothing could have prepared her for the discovery that she was an _experiment_. She almost ripped the wires from the terminals, gazing down at the corpse of the dead Overseer with something close to loathing. She broke open what she could, picked the locks of what she was able, and ignored what she couldn’t carry. Still, she picked the Vault clean, pilling all the resources she could find into tool chests in case she needed to come back. If the surface world was too dangerous, she might need to stay here.

The thought made her ill.

The Pip Boy was the only good thing about the Vault, and she strapped it to her wrist quickly. They had been incredibly popular once, and it seemed her key to getting out of here. She felt nerves rising at the thought. What, exactly, waited for her above ground? People had to at least be able to live. The proof was the bullet in her husband’s body, put there by whoever had taken Shaun. Still, there was no telling just how that bomb had affected the world she knew.

There was a great deal of hesitation before she hit the button on the dashboard, and as the Vault door opened, she felt her heart pounding in her chest even past the titanic noise of the great door opening. For a few seconds, she clung to the railings, her throat constricting. Could she…could she do it? Could she leave the Vault? Her legs were like jelly, pulse through the roof, and her hands were shaking as she guided herself across the platform to the lift. She remembered this. She remembered the elevator descending, the feeling of safety, and suddenly Nora was aware of the miles of dirt above her head, pressing her down, and fled to the other side of the room, skidding to a halt on the circle. Light blazed down on her, the roar of machinery filling her ears, as she rose, her body brimming with buzzing, nervous energy.

She didn’t remember much of the journey up, but oh _god_ , when the hatch doors opened, the sunlight blinded her. Heat blasted onto her skin and she took a gasp of air, real, fresh air, filled with dust and life, scorching down her quickly-warming throat as she spread out her arms, flinching against the light in her eyes, and absorbed the rays. One arm covered her from the relentless beams, and she blinked back the daze brought on by the brightness, finally able to see what had once been home to her.

It was as she’d feared.

Her home was a ruin. She could see Sanctuary Hills below her, the once beautiful blue houses rusted and in disrepair. Several of them were completely destroyed. And stretching out beneath her, the sandblasted yellow grass and dead trees, towering broken overpasses and burnt building, all that remained of the once verdant Massachusetts landscape.

Nora Pendleton looked upon the new world, and promptly heaved up whatever was left in her stomach.


	3. Chapter 3

Codsworth gave her purified water. She downed the whole bottle like it was hard liquor, bathed in her own sweat and considerably more roach guts than before. God, it had been like a drowning woman finding land when she discovered Codsworth was still in Sanctuary Hills, tending to the house. Warmth had fluttered through her, real, human emotion, bringing her to deep, heart-wrenching sobs on the dirty doorstep of her old home.

He had been distraught at the news of Nate’s death, and searching the ruined houses had been a good distraction for the both of them, especially when she’d encountered another nest of bugs and broken into the basement of one of her erstwhile neighbours. Well, he wasn’t going to need the Gwinnett or the gold.

Now, she was enjoying the clean drink and mulling over the day’s events in her mind. It…it was a mess, to say the least.

 _“Yabhati,”_ she murmured, and she could almost feel Codsworth flinch.

“Mum, I am versed in a considerable number of languages and I can assure you, I am perfectly capable of understanding when you swear.”

“I’m sorry, Codsworth,” she sighed. “It’s…been quite a day.”

“I…I completely understand, Mum! Please, forgive me. Swear away.”

“No, I…I just need to eat.”

“Of course, Mum! You…left some Salisbury steak in the fridge but I’m certain it’s…out of date.”

That forced the tiniest quirk of Nora’s lips and she put her empty bottle in a small pile, standing. The thought of Salisbury steak should have been inviting, but it turned her stomach for some strange reason. Perhaps it was the memory it brought, tending to it whilst Nate peeled potatoes and chatted in that sweet, peppy voice of his, smiling at her, always smiling, like her presence pushed up the corners of his mouth.

“What are those bugs that were in the houses?” she asked.

“Bloatflies and Radroaches,” Codsworth replied distastefully. “Disgusting creatures.”

Nora wiped her mouth clean of any water. “Do they have meat on them?”

The sound that came from Codsworth’s chassis almost made her giggle.

The smell of the roasting meat made her mouth water, and it tasted surprisingly good, though it shouldn’t have come as much of a shock. Her first meal in years. 210, if Codsworth was right. She was wiping her hands off with a piece of cloth when the Mr Handy hummed quietly.

“Mum,” he began, “I’ve run a diagnostic on you just in case you had any wounds or fractures needing tending. And I’m pleased to announce, you are hale and hearty and-”

He stopped.

“And, _what_ , Codsworth?” she asked, suddenly worried. Did she have something wrong? Why did he look as worried as a robot could?

“You’re _pregnant_ , Mum,” he confessed.

Nora’s mouth dropped open, and she almost returned her latest meal to the fire. Any protestations, anything else she might have said to him, was halted by the sound of barking, and she stood, watching the most beautiful German Shepherd she had ever seen waltz into Sanctuary Hills, heading towards them. It had clearly been lured by the smell of the roach meat, and Nora stopped herself from eating the rest of it, tossing the meat to the dog. It devoured the present eagerly, and bounded over to her, resting its head on her leg. A male.

“Hey boy,” she murmured. “What are you doing here alone?”

“Oh, he’s so beautiful!” Codsworth announced. “What a charming little mutt!”

The dog moved away from her, pattering down the road. Nora watched him stop, looking back at her and yipping.

“You think he wants me to follow him?” she asked the Mr Handy.

“He might, but, Mum, in your condition…”

“Codsworth…is it possible for you to tell me how far along…?”

“Of course, Mum. My sensors are telling me…less than three months.”

“Less than three months.”

She played with the handle of her gun as she gazed back at the dog, and then at Codsworth. Stress could kill the child if she got too deep into more combat. On the other hand, the dog could need some serious help.

“Come on boy. What are you trying to show me?”


	4. Chapter 4

Concord was both joy and pain. The last Minuteman, Preston Garvey, restored something of hope in Nora.

If the phrase ‘on their last legs’ had been invented for anyone, it was Preston when she met him. Backed into a corner, armed with only a laser musket, and shielding the last dregs of his life with his body, he still had a gleam in his eye that told her he would die fighting to the last man rather than surrender these people to the Raiders. There was nowhere else for them to go, she realised, and so she invited them back to the ruins of her old home, even if there was something like pain as she did so. It was her place, after all.

Part of her wanted to be alone in Sanctuary Hills, but the company she was entertaining now were ragged remains what was once a much, much larger party. She pitied them, and if she could help them, the mothering part of her was desperate to do so.

And, it wasn’t as though she’d met worse people. Marcy Long…Marcy Long she could understand. She was a grieving mother, even if her every word seemed determined to rile Nora to the point of aggression. Jun seemed unable to give himself credit, and that made her sad. She was glad that it didn’t seem to be Marcy that was driving him to this. She had endured one abusive mother in her life. She would not put up with another. Mama Murphy…the less she really spoke to that woman, the better. It was distaste for her addiction rather than anything else, and she would rather not risk her life for ‘the Sight’ no matter how helpful it might be.

Not that she was rude to her. That wasn’t necessary.

Sturges was a godsend. Years of growing up with a mechanic for a father had taught Nora some basic workshop skills, and at the first sign of there being any peace in the next town over, she ended up dragging Codsworth to Concord to help her collect whatever she could find to melt down. Her cultivated pragmatism caused her to be ruthless with anything that could be scrapped. She and Sturges hammered together several large bins to use for different materials, and she asked Marcy to sweep up all the rubbish she could find. They spent hours separating metal, plastic and vegetable waste, and at the end had a massive pile of tin cans, old bottles and old toys. Two of the houses in Sanctuary were so dilapidated they weren’t any use for anything, and so they tore them down and collected a bounty of steel, screws and other materials. If a piece of panelling could be welded back on, Nora and Sturges welded it back on. If it was useless, it was removed, and scrapped for fresh materials. Slowly, they dismantled most of the cars in Sanctuary, until only one remained.

“Mum, that is _your_ car,” Codsworth said gently. “And you and Sir did love it so.”

 _Don’t own anything you won’t break to get what you want from it_ , Nora’s mother had told her once. And right now, her advice actually meant something. She leaned down and brushed her fingers across the rusted Corvega.

“I can never drive this again,” she told him. “Sanctuary Hills needs it way more than me.”

“You are so selfless, Mum,” he praised her. She could almost see his approval floating through the air, and she smiled.

She spent a week in Sanctuary, helping them shore up makeshift defences, before she knew she needed to return to her quest.

“While you’re gone, I think we should put up a beacon, to invite people here,” Preston told her.

“No,” Nora countered gently. “If I see anyone who needs a home, I’ll point them this way, but if we put up a signal, we might get attacked. And this place isn’t nearly ready for more Raiders. You barely held them off in Concord, and that place had far more resources than here.”

“All right.” He paused. “Whilst you’re out there…well, I wanted to ask. I’d like to rebuild the Minutemen, but to do that, we need people. If you come across any settlements, could you tell them the Minutemen will be back, and to join us if they want our help?”

“Sure,” Nora replied. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“That means a lot to me,” he admitted. “I’ve always wanted to be a Minuteman, ever since I was younger. We’ve taken some hits, but I truly believe they’re the best thing for the Commonwealth. You saved us back in Concord, given us a home. And now, you’re helping us out in other ways. I don’t know who unfroze you or why, but they don’t know what good they did.”

Nora flushed.

“Thanks, Preston.”

He walked her to the Power Armour station, watching Sturges wipe the final traces of dirt off the new coat of Minuteman paint he’d put on the front.

“Hope you don’t mind, but Sturges did a few upgrades. And…the paint job is...Well actually, it’s wishful thinking on my part. That you’ll tell people about us…I mean, I can get him to take it off.”

“No, it’s lovely. It’s a great shade of blue. And it’s a great cause.”

She stepped inside the frame and the dark blue metal closed around her. She switched on her headlights and turned to Garvey.

“I’m going to make some caches of stuff if I find anything useful. I’ll send Codsworth back with it if I do.”

“Just get to Diamond City,” Preston told her. “That’s the biggest settlement in the Commonwealth. There’s got to be someone there that can help you.”


	5. Chapter 5

_Automated message repeating._

_This is Scribe Haylen of Reconnaissance Squad Gladius, to any unit in transmission range. Authorisation Arcs-Ferum-Nine-Five._

_Our unit has sustained casualties, and we’re running low on supplies. We’re requesting support or evac from our current position, at Cambridge Police Station._

Nora had taken Codsworth and Dogmeat with her, but her Pip-Boy had picked up a frequency near Cambridge, and she was curious to hear what the Brotherhood of Steel was. It had been almost a week since she’d left Sanctuary Hills anyway, and she’d need supplies at some point soon. Maybe these Brotherhood types could provide.

Nora followed the signal to see waves of ghouls attacking a fortified building. What she found at her detour was a small group of what were clearly soldiers.

“Paladin Danse, Recon Squad Gladius, Brotherhood of Steel,” one of them introduced, once the ghouls had been destroyed.

“Nora Pendleton, Commonwealth Minutemen,” she replied. He quirked a brow at her.

“Minutemen? We thought they’d all been wiped out.”

“Almost to a man. We’re rebuilding.” She folded her arms as best she could in her own armour, looking at him. “What’s the Brotherhood of Steel, and why’s it sending a recon team into the Commonwealth?”

“We’re a military organisation, founded after the Great War. Our job is to confiscate technology if it’s being misused. It’s brought us into conflict with the Institute.”

“The Institute?” Nora repeated.

“They’ve been behind a great deal of trouble for the Commonwealth in the last few years. They can replace people at will with synths – synthetic people.”

Nora’s brow furrowed.

“Do you think they’re the type of people to steal children?”

“God, I hope not,” Danse swore. “But it sounds like something they’d do. Why?”

“I have my own reasons for asking,” she told him carefully. “If you’re here looking for tech, what is it you need?”

“You’re alarmingly straight to the point. We’re after the Deep Range Transmitter. It’s located in ArcJet Systems, not far from here. But as you can see, we’ve suffered some losses, not just from the ghouls. Knight Rhys is in no state to help me and Scribe Haylen needs to tend his wounds. So…will you give the Brotherhood of Steel a hand?”

“Happy to,” she replied. “I need to know as much as you can tell me about the Institute.”

 

* * *

 

 

By the time Danse and Nora had shot their way through ArcJet, Nora had asked enough questions to be certain that the Institute was the monster she was hunting. It was the first time she had ever seen a Synth. It was both amazing and terrifying, that in 200 or so years this was what people had been able to make.

Paladin Danse was an incredibly capable man, and the Brotherhood was obviously ready for anything. Their firepower, even as a Recon team of three, was clearly vastly superior to the Minutemen. She was grateful for the rifle the Paladin handed her upon exiting the ArcJet building.

“We had a lot thrown at us back there,” he told her. “Our op could have ended in disaster, but you kept your head, and handled it like a soldier. There’s no doubt in my mind that you’ve got what it takes to be part of the Brotherhood of Steel. From the questions you’ve been asking, we’re going after the same enemy. So, what do you say?”

Nora took a moment to reload her rifle, thinking the question over.

“I’d like to ask a few more questions before I make any decisions,” she told him. Danse inclined his head.

“What is it you need to know?”

“What kind of forces have you got? These people can make what are essentially human beings. Is there anything you can throw at them that might dent their headquarters, wherever they are?”

“I’m not at liberty to say much,” Danse admitted. “Not without telling you classified Brotherhood intel. But rest assured, we’ve got the strength to take them on.”

“And if you came here in force?” she began. “If your Recon team is scouting out for a larger army? How long would it take you to get here?”

“I doubt our Elder would want us in unfamiliar territory in winter. It’s likely that once Haylen installs the transmitter and broadcasts our results back to headquarters, they’d arrive in spring. Why do you ask?”

“I’m under the type of circumstances that mean I’d want as much of this business wrapped up before winter as I can,” Nora told him, perhaps a little too cryptically. “At best, all I can say is that I’m certain the Institute kidnapped my son. I need to find the man who took him. If I can track him, I’ll see where I go from there.”

“Circumstances?” Danse repeated.

“I really can’t say anything about it.” She paused. “The Brotherhood looks like it could be a great deal of help to me. But as of right now…I’m unsure.”

“I understand. It’s a life-changing decision. Just be aware that if we do intend to come to the Commonwealth and you’re still uncertain, I can’t vouch that the offer will still be available. Still, thankyou for your help. I’ll be sure to inform my commanding officers of the help the Minutemen gave us.”

He took off his helmet and looked at her kindly.

“I’m sorry about your son,” he told her. “The Institute are bastards. I truly hope you find him.”

“Thanks,” she said softly. “Do you know the fastest way to Diamond City?”

“If I were you, I’d just keep following the road south.”

“Keep yourselves safe.”

“Ad Victoriam, Ms Pendleton.”


	6. Chapter 6

Nora made her first cache outside of the Police station. Codsworth ran another diagnostic on her, and announced, quietly, that she had just passed her first trimester. It should have filled her with delight, but all Nora could feel was time ticking away. Shaun was slipping from her fingers with every day she lost. She needed to make better time than this.

Codsworth had been plumped with thermal imaging by Sturges out of some parts Nora had scavenged a few days back, and they were nearing the ruins of Boston when he let out a ‘ding’ of alarm, and immediately hurried her down a side street. As they disappeared around the corner, Nora heard deep, gruff voices exchanging words in broken English.

“Super Mutants,” Codsworth whispered. “Very, very nasty, mum. Best we avoid them.”

“What do they look like?” she murmured, following him down the lane.

“Oh, very tall, mum! Ghastly faces! They have these disgusting bags of meat that they hang everywhere, and I’m not keen to know what’s inside of them.”

The side alley took them what Nora was certain was a long way, but if Codsworth was right, it was safe. They were skirting around the edge of the city, close to a pond, when Nora stopped, her eye catching something small moving on the banks.

“Codsworth,” she began, “are my eyes deceiving me…or is that a cat?”

“It is indeed a cat, mum,” he confirmed. “What a dear little thing!”

“What’s a cat doing out here?” she murmured, more to herself than to her companion.

“He could be lost,” Codsworth offered. “Shall we approach it?”

Nora crossed over the road, heading towards the fuzzy grey mass on the corner. The cat ignored them as they approached, sunning itself lazily.

“Hey, little guy,” Nora said gently, crouching down and stroking him. She let out a gasp. It was the softest thing she had touched in weeks. “Where’s your home? You’re too beautiful to be a stray.”

As if it understood her, it got up, and took off towards the west. Nora followed it, curious when it dived into a nearby cave past a railed-off area with shacks and shipping containers littered around the area. And that was when she spotted it.

Raised above her, in the sky, the advertisement for the Vaults that had been looming over Sanctuary before the bombs had fallen.

“Mum, could it be…?” Codsworth asked timidly, the grinding of Nora’s teeth an audible sound in the quiet.

“Yeah,” she breathed, and the smallest hint of red tinged her vision. _Vault-Tec._ Damn them. “Yeah, Codsworth. I think we’ve found another Vault.”

 

* * *

 

 

They entered the cave to see the cat perched on the yellow railings, cleaning its paws near the dashboard, and Nora walked over to it curiously. Was this where the cat had come from? Interesting, given the quite obviously closed Vault door.

She unplugged her Pip-Boy’s remote accessor and plugged it into the console, watching the catch pop on the glass covering the switch. She pushed the red button, and waited for that familiar, train-crashing screech.

Instead, she heard a voice.

_“Hold it right there. Vault 81 security. I don’t know where you got your hands on a working Pip-Boy, but you better start talking.”_

Nora’s throat clenched up, and she choked back a sob.

“Oh my god,” she whispered. “Oh my god. You’re….you’re alive?”

 _“…Are you all right, ma’am?”_ the voice asked her, suddenly concerned.

“I’m from Vault 111,” she sobbed.

 _“What’s going on?”_ a woman’s voice asked.

_“This lady says she’s from Vault 111. She’s got a working Pip-Boy and, uh…she’s quite emotional, ma’am.”_

“Will you let me in?” Nora asked, wiping her eyes.

 _“My god,”_ the woman breathed. _“You don’t happen to have any fusion cores on you, my dear?”_

“I…I might have one or two,” she choked.

_“Edwards, let her in. We’ll be down to meet you.”_

The intercom cut out and the Vault door roared open, and as Nora made her way over to it, the walkway extended out to her. She blinked at the brightness of the lights shining on her, but crossed the metal path towards the figures at the end.

“Gwen McNamara,” the woman introduced herself. “Do you…do you need a cloth or something?”

“I’m sorry,” Nora apologised. “I…I came from a Vault up north. It’s completely dead now. I thought…I thought all the Vaults were like that.”

The man in armour next to her dug out a slightly grimy handkerchief, but Nora took it gladly and mopped her face up.

“What happened?” the Overseer asked.

“We were all in cryo units, but…there was a malfunction. I was the only one who survived,” Nora told her.

“Cryo? As in, preserved?” McNamara repeated.

“As part of an experiment,” Nora replied. “These Vaults…they…they weren’t made for protecting us. We’re human science tests.”

The Overseer folded her arms. “I refuse to believe that,” she announced coolly, as the cat approached and wound itself around Nora’s legs. “Is that Erin’s cat?”

“I believe so, ma’am,” the security officer confirmed. “He must have escaped before we closed the door.”

“Most of the Vault is in quarantine,” McNamara informed her fellow dweller. “We’re not sure what’s happened, or why. Nobody in the Vault has ever been dangerously sick, but right now, there’s a ten-year-old boy who’s been bitten by a molerat, and we don’t know if what he’s got is contagious.”

“Then, you took a risk by letting me in,” Nora realised. “Thank you.”

“Overseer?” a voice called, and they turned to see a security guard approaching them.

“What is it?”

“It’s Bobby.”

“Oh my god, is he ill too?”

“No, ma’am. He says he might know how to help Austin.”

The Overseer turned to Nora. “I don’t know if you want to stay. You risk getting ill.”

“If it’s Molerats that pass on the disease through bite,” Nora began, gesturing to her power armour, “I’m going to be fine.”

The Overseer’s lips quirked. “All right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I remember walking into Vault 81 and wanting to cry with delight at the sound of real people on the other side of the door. Walking through the Wasteland is very depressing and the discovery of these Vaulties, mostly safe and alive, made me so happy. And it would delight Nora too.


	7. Chapter 7

She left Vault 81 with Codsworth and Curie bringing up the rear, Dogmeat scouting out a path ahead that would be free of Raiders and Super Mutants. The soft-spoken Miss Nanny had sparked something in her, a desire to free her, and when Curie had asked to accompany her she had jumped at the chance. Just like her Curie had known a world before the bombs, and she empathised with the robot’s disappointment at what she saw beyond the Vault. Nora’s power armour was critical in clearing cars from their way, and when a wrong turn took them into a neighbourhood filled with Raiders, the four of them managed to clear it with only a few scratches to the metalwork.

They took a break in the alleyway, and Nora had a look around, wondering if it would be any kind of place to build a settlement. It was quite hidden, out of the way, with multiple exits, and Vault 81 was close enough that settlers could flee if there was too much trouble. She marked the spot on her Pip-Boy to give to Preston, and they made their way around the back roads and through old buildings, starting to see signs pointing to Diamond City.

Nora found herself pessimistic. It was unlikely to be much worth looking at. Hopefully, there would be someone there who could help her. Still, she could at least try. The Commonwealth couldn’t possibly be so destroyed that nothing worth saving remained. After all, she had met Preston Garvey, and that one man alone had proved this place was worth her time.

The group met super mutants raiding just outside the city, and the Diamond City guards valiantly fighting them off. The mutants were holed up in the building opposite taking potshots when Nora arrived, clutching her souped-up rifle, and she hunkered down with the guards to help. By the time the fight was over, she’d used up several more of her hard-earned stimpaks, and the metal guards on her legs were broken.

“Thanks for the help, civilian,” one of them told her. “Get inside. Oh god…wait.”

“Danny Sullivan!” a voice barked from behind Nora, and she turned to see a young woman, dressed in a red trenchcoat, yelling aggressively into the intercom. “There’s just been a goddamn mutant attack, and you’re refusing to let me in to safety?! What in the hell are you gonna say to Nat if I died out here?”  

“I’m not supposed to let you in, Piper,” a voice apologised. “Mayor’s orders.”

“Ooooooh, Mayor’s scared of the nasty reporter,” Piper mocked. “Damn it, Danny!”

She looked over at Nora and did a double-take, as if not expecting the woman in a huge suit of blue power armour. Her face lit up.

“You!” she whispered. “You want in to Diamond City?”

“Hell yeah,” Nora murmured.

“Play along,” Piper hissed. “What’s that?” she began loudly. “You…you have all these supplies you’re trying to deliver? You can keep the general store stocked for…how long? A month?”

She grinned. Nora’s brow raised behind the helmet of the power armour.

“You hear that, Danny? This lady’s got stuff to trade! Cus, uh, wouldn’t like to be you when you gotta tell crazy Myrna how you turned away all this supply.”

“Jeez, all right!” the guard sighed. “No need to make it personal, Piper. Give me a minute.”

It took a few moments, but the gates began to rise, and then Nora started to laugh. Of course. Diamond City. The old baseball stadium. It was quite an ideal location, really. Easily defensible, large enough to house thousands of people.

“Ah well,” Codsworth sighed. “I had hoped for better, but…”

“It’s okay, Codsworth,” Nora murmured. “It’s a start.”

Mayor McDonough, on the other hand…god, there was _slimy_ , and there was…him. Nora wasn’t sure what to think of him other than distrust. He was every sleazy politician she’d ever seen on the TV rolled into one man. With a large handful of nervousness…

Still, she had a name – Valentine, which lit up a few curious memories within her regarding some of the cases she’d taken. And Piper, it seemed, was keen to lend a hand too.

“Come visit me,” the woman had invited. “I think I just found my next story. Valentine’s office is near the market, just around the corner.”

She watched the woman head into the city, and noted the intrigued look in her eye. It must be rare for a woman to turn up with two robots and a dog, dressed fully in power armour, she supposed.  

Diamond City was the hole she had come to expect from the Commonwealth, but it had working electricity, and a place to stay. She immediately followed Piper into her home – she could use at least one friend this far out west. She stepped out of the armour, stretching with a grunt, and watched Piper’s intrigued look grow.

“So, a Vault Dweller, looking for her son, in the Commonwealth,” Piper began. “Damn. You holding up okay, Blue?”

“Blue?” Nora repeated.

“Jumpsuit,” Piper began. “Oh…and, I guess your eyes, too. Huh. I’m noticing them now.”

She…was she blushing? She cleared her throat.

“So, I’d like to conduct an interview. Get to know you and your perspective on this little place of ours. This…Jewel.”

“Okay,” Nora murmured. “But…I draw the line at anything too personal.”

“Understood.” Piper paused. “So…you’re from a Vault. How would you describe your time in there?”

“I didn’t spend that long inside the Vault,” Nora admitted. “We were cryogenically frozen for most of the time. I’ve only just woken up.”

“Wait, when were you frozen?” Piper asked, her eyes wide.

“Uh…October, 2077,” Nora told her.

“…You’re Pre-War?” Piper breathed.

“…War?” Nora asked. “Is that what the bombs were? A war?”

“You saw the _bombs?_ ”

“Yeah. The blast of it was going over my head as we were lowered into Vault 111.”

“That…that’s amazing. Hold on, I have to write this all down.”

She watched the reporter dive for a pen and paper, scribbling down Nora’s answers. Nora assessed the woman before her. She couldn’t have been any older than her mid-twenties, if that. She seemed quite genuine in her interest. It was nice.

“That’s amazing,” she repeated. “You’re…you’re over 200 years old. ‘The Woman Out of Time.’” There was another pause as she scribbled down the headline. “So, you’ve seen the Commonwealth, Diamond City. What do you think?”

Nora bit her lip, and took a moment to consider. Was there any point sugar-coating this?

“Well,” she began, a little warily, “it’s not something you can compare. Half of this place I can barely recognise. Diamond City used to be a baseball stadium. Hell, I called Boston home for years, and seeing what it is now, it breaks my heart a little. But…but there is still life here, and I guess…in a way, that makes it a little better.”

Piper smiled at her sympathetically, taking her notes. “So, I already know you’re looking for your son…”

“Shaun,” Nora reminded her, and Piper gave her a thankful nod.

“Do you suspect the Institute was involved in his kidnapping?”

“From what questions I’ve been able to ask, I think so,” Nora agreed. “And if they really have taken him, I want to know why. It doesn’t make any sense to me. Why steal a baby?”

“I don’t know, Blue, but if they’ve got your child…I can’t even imagine your pain.” She added the last set of notes, and looked up at the woman sympathetically. “For the last part of the interview, I’d like to do something different. I’d like you to make a statement directly to Diamond City. Kidnappings are…they’re a looming threat in the Commonwealth, but they’re almost completely ignored. What kind of statement would you make for someone who’s lost a loved one, but is too scared or numb to look for them?”

“Don’t give up hope,” Nora replied eventually. “Don’t ever give up hope. Maybe it’s the only thing keeping you going. If it is, hold on to it. You might feel sick, or you might feel nothing else, but all you need to keep you going is the hope you’ll see them again.”

Her voice broke, and Piper squeezed her arm. “Thanks, Blue,” she murmured. “Look…I won’t take up any more of your time. Go and find Nick Valentine. There’s not a case he hasn’t solved yet.”


	8. Chapter 8

Piper joined her group, and guided her to Valentine’s detective agency, signposted by a glowing red heart in the dark back-alley. The door was unlocked, and she left Piper and the others outside whilst she went in.

Ellie Perkins was the portrait of a woman under stress. Nick Valentine, it turned out, was missing, having gone after a gang leader and not come back. An old metro station with a Vault in it, Ellie said, and Nora gave her a calming smile and headed back out the door. She traded some weapons and raider clothes for extra ammo, and then ordered Codsworth and Curie back to Sanctuary with all the junk she’d picked up. Sturges had been very keen she make use of everything she found. There was almost too much for them to carry, but she made sure not to overload them – there was that cache she’d made near the police station, and she wanted them to pick that up too.

“You sure we didn’t need them, Blue?” Piper asked, as the Vault Dweller climbed into her armour. “It sounds like we’re facing a whole gang.”

“I’m not taking Curie into another Vault,” Nora began. “And I’m not going to expose Codsworth to one. God only knows he worried about us enough. Imagine if he actually saw the inside of one.”

She regretted her decision later, when she and Piper were holed up behind a counter, fending off shots from the Triggermen and lobbing a few Molotov cocktails their way. Park Street Station was a tough fight – the submachine guns that the gangsters used weren’t as much powerful as they were simply fast to reload and able to spew out plenty of bullets. Nora’s rifle and Piper’s pistol were a little slower on the rate of fire, and thus, it took them far too long to work their way through the station.

Later, it was almost worth just bringing Piper, if only just for her reaction to the giant door with 114 painted on it.

“Holy _shit_ ,” Piper breathed. “That…that’s a really big door. How…I don’t think even your armour is getting us past this, Blue.”

Nora laughed softly. “We don’t need brute force to get us where we want to go, Piper,” she informed the reporter, and stepped out of her armour to plug herself into the vault dashboard. “Go on,” she said, as the glass covering the button flicked open, “hit it.”

Piper did so, almost with glee, and almost fell back at the train-crashing-rail-squealing sound that came from the Vault door when it opened.

“ _Jesus_ ,” she breathed.

“Imagine hearing that after waking up 200 or so years after cryosleep,” Nora murmured.

“ _Jesus,_ ” the other woman repeated.

And then for a long time, it was just surviving the gunfire, the two women moving slowly through the vault. Nora was intrigued. This place had clearly been abandoned long before it was supposed to have been completed. What had the experiment been here, she wondered. It didn’t look obvious in the slightest.

There was a brief moment to breathe, in a much larger room clearly intended to be some kind of dining area. Nora spotted a man up on the walkway above them, and aimed at him through the sights on her rifle. She held her breath, and pulled the trigger. He dropped, and, after checking that there were no other triggermen in the vicinity, she and Piper headed up the stairs.

“Nick?” Piper called.

“You gotta be kidding me,” a voice responded. There was a pause. “We’ve got three minutes before they realise muscles-for-brains ain’t coming back. Get the door open.”

“Nice to see you again, Valentine,” Piper told the figure behind the glass.

“What the hell are you doing here, Wright?” the man chuckled, as Nora slid out of her armour and examined the terminal.

“Here to rescue you, of course,” the journalist informed him. “Gotta say, Nicky, didn’t expect this from you.”

“Nobody’s perfect, Piper,” he sighed, as the terminal beeped, and the door slid open.

“Valentine,” Piper said, entering the room. Nora followed her, and when the man raised his head, his glowing eyes sent a frisson of heat down her spine, a pleasant heat that caused a catch in her breath. She gripped her gun tighter.

Oh god. _Oh god._

“Gotta love the irony of the reverse damsel in distress scenario,” the man – robot? – commented. “Question is, why did our heroine risk life and limb for an old private eye?”

“Piper,” Nora finally asked. “What…is…”

_It? He?_

“What is he?”

“This is Nick Valentine, a synth,” Piper told her. “Gen 2. How’d you get caught, Nick?”

“Let’s just say, the runaway daughter I thought was kidnapped came here quite willingly. She’s Skinny Malone’s new flame, and boy, does she have a mean streak,” Nick muttered. “Who’s your friend?”

“Nick, this is Nora. She needs your help.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Nora murmured, still a little thrown.

“Same to you. Let’s get out of here,” Nick invited.

“Hold on. Let me look at this terminal?” Nora asked.

“Go on, Blue,” Piper said.

“Why are you interested in it?” Nick asked, as Nora sat at the desk, swiping the holotapes and the bobblehead.

“Blue’s from a Vault,” Piper told him, as Nora began looking through the files. “All of them are experiments, apparently. I guess she wants to find out what each one was designed for.”

“This one was supposed to house the rich and wealthy of Boston,” Nora said, downloading the data onto a spare holotape in the drawers. “In the worst, most cramped quarters in the world.”

“Wish I could do that to some of the people in the Stands,” Piper muttered. Nora levelled her with a reproachful look. “Okay, okay, Blue! God, it’s like you’re my mom.”

“And they were supposed to appoint literally the least incompetent person ever to run the place,” the Vault Dweller continued. “Wonder which one of these three it was?”

“You got everything you want, Blue?” Piper asked.

“Yeah. Let’s get going.”

“Skinny Malone’s probably going to be down here soon,” Nick warned them as she skirted round the desk. “Let’s get moving before that happens.”

Nora climbed back into her armour.

“After you, detective.”

Nick led them through the Vault, using a different route to the one they’d taken, helping the women and the dog to take down Triggermen as they passed.

“Skinny Malone’s men used to be small-time gangsters,” he began. “Got run out of Goodneighbour by bigger, deadlier sharks. Then they found this place.”

“Skinny Malone?” Nora repeated. “What a name.”

“It’s…ironic,” Nick said with a grin. She found herself unable to meet his eyes. Wow. That glowing yellow stare…It was _really_ having an effect on her. He knelt down by a door, and began messing with the lock.

“So, Nick,” Nora said. “Who, actually are you?”

“Once we get out of here, I promise I’ll talk to you,” the synth assured her, as the lock clicked. “I got it, but I hear big, fat footsteps on the other side of the door. Be ready for anything.”

“Oh, _ironic_ ,” Nora suddenly realised, as Piper grinned at her. The sliding door opened, and she had to swallow a giggle. Oh yes, the name was indeed ironic.

“Nicky!” the mobster in front of them protested. “You come into my house, shoot up my guys? You have any idea how much this is gonna set me back?”

“Then tell your dame to write home more often,” Nick shot back. “She’s the reason I’m here.”

“Awwww,” the girl in the blue dress cooed. “Ashamed you got beat up by a girl?”

“This ain’t the old neighbourhood. I rule here,” Skinny added. “You ain’t shuttin’ us down now that I got a good thing goin’.”

“Why the hell didn’t you just kill him?” his girl barked, waving her bat menacingly. “Had to get all sentimental, didn’t you? Waxing crap about the old times.”

“Darla, I’m handlin’ it!” Malone barked. “Skinny Malone’ _always_ got things under control.”

“Oh yeah?! Then how’d this lady get in here?!” Darla demanded. “Valentine probably brought her here to wipe us out!”

“Go home, Darla,” Nora said softly. “You have one. Most people don’t have that luxury. Your parents want you to come back.”

“I…”

The girl dropped her bat.

“What was I thinking?! I have to…I have to go home. Now!”

She turned on her heel, ignoring Malone’s surprised cries. Nora watched her go, surprised. She…she hadn’t fully expected that to work.

“What the hell, you broad?! You just…you just cost me my girl!” Malone began, his mouth flapping. “All right, Nicky. Get your ass outta here, before I blow it out. You and your friend. You got until I count to ten.”

“Let’s go,” Nick murmured. “Before he changes his mind.”

“Holy shit, Blue,” Piper whispered. “How’d you…how’d you do that?”

“She looked…really lost,” Nora admitted, as they left the vault and began traversing the tunnels. “I know if I were here, home is all I’d want to be.”

“Well, you saved us a bloodbath,” Nick told her, opening a subway door and moving to grasp hold of the ladder at the opposite end of the room.

“No problem,” Nora mumbled.

It took a bit of time, but they got up the ladder just as daw was breaking over the buildings. Nick took a deep breath and inhaled the air.

“Ahhh, the Commonwealth sky. Never realised it could be so…inviting.” He levelled his gaze at her and Nora felt the heat searing her cheeks. “How’d you know how to find me in Vault 114 anyway?”

“Ellie told me,” Nora admitted.

“I should give her a raise,” Valentine chuckled, and pulled out a cigarette. “Piper said you needed my help. What for?”

“I’m tracking whoever took my son,” Nora told him. “He’s a baby, not even a year old. Think you could help?”

“Jesus,” Nick swore. “I’ll certainly try. Follow me back to Diamond City.”


	9. Chapter 9

Nora had, it seemed, met more than a few angels – _apsarasah_ – on this side of the Great War. Nick Valentine and Ellie Perkins were the kind of people who qualified. The sweet-natured woman had greeted Nick with a warmth in her voice and the threat of tears that spoke volumes to Nora of just how they cared for each other. She wondered how long they had been working together.

Nora left her armour around the corner. She sat down in front of Nick’s desk, and Piper leant against the nearest filing cabinet, as Ellie pulled out a clipboard, some paper and a pencil. Dogmeat curled into a corner.

“When you’re trying to find someone who’s gone missing, the devil is in the details,” Nick began. “I need you to tell me everything you remember. Even the little things. They could end up being huge clues that piece together a puzzle. I’m aware that…some of the details might be painful.”

Nora nodded. Piper squeezed her shoulder comfortingly.

“We were in a Vault,” she began. “Vault 111. Some big cryo facility.”

“Frozen, huh?” Nick asked. “But…the Vault. Vaults are underground, sometimes infested, and almost never friendly. That’s a hell of an obstacle just for a baby…Can you carry on?”

“They…they murdered my husband,” Nora managed. “He was just holding Shaun, trying to keep him safe, and one of them shot him in the chest. Nate was military, he was a tough guy…they would’ve never gotten Shaun from him on a good day.”

“It’s okay,” Ellie murmured. “You don’t need to say any more.”

Piper leant down and took her hand. Dogmeat got up, placing his head in her lap, and she scratched behind his ear softly.

“There were two of them,” she added. “A man and a woman. She…she was wearing some kind of suit, like hazmat, but much thicker. After he’d shot Nate, he…he called me the backup.”

“A small team. Able to infiltrate a Vault, overpower a former soldier, and take his child. They can only be professionals.”

“But why take a baby?” she choked. Piper put an arm around her and held her tight, as Ellie put down the clipboard and reached for her hand. Nick took the clipboard and continued to write.

“They had some kind of agenda,” he finally said. “Must have. Babies need care and attention.”

“I…I spoke to one of the Brotherhood of Steel some days ago,” Nora told him. “I…from what he told me, I really think it’s the Institute.”

“Hmph. Brotherhood of Steel might have some _logistics_ they need working out, but if one of their soldiers thinks it matches the actions of the Institute, they could be right,” Nick mused. “You said there were two of them, and you’ve already described the woman. What about the man?”

“He…he was the one who shot Nate,” she recounted. “Bald head. Scar across his left eye. His voice…it…it was rough. Like…sandpaper.”

Nick drew in a breath. “It can’t be…you didn’t hear the name Kellogg at all, did you?”

“Does he work for the Institute?” she asked.

“Doll…he might just,” Nick finally replied. “Ellie, what notes do we have on the Kellogg case?”

“It matches,” Ellie said grimly, flicking through the file. “Bald head. Scar. Reputation for dangerous mercenary work with no known employer. God, Nick…”

“He bought a house around here,” Nick continued. “Had a ten year old kid with him.”

“West Stands,” Ellie confirmed.

“Ten years old?” Nora whispered. _Did they ice me back up for a decade?!_

“Let’s go have a look at Kellogg’s place,” Nick invited. “And see if we can find anything to tell us where he went.”

“Security doesn’t really go to that part of town but…be careful,” Ellie warned. Nick shot her a grin as Nora got to her feet.

“Ellie, can you watch this power armour?” Nora asked.

“Happy to,” the other woman said softly.

 

* * *

 

 

“Let’s get going,” Nick murmured, as they left his office. Walking through the alley, he kept his voice low. “I didn’t want Ellie to hear this, but I thought you should know. Everything I dug up about Kellogg before his disappearance is bad news. He’s more than just a mercenary. He’s a professional. He’s quick, clean, thorough. He has no enemies, because they’re all dead.”

“Except me,” Nora muttered.

“Indeed,” Nick agreed. “But nine to one odds says he’s our man. It’s more than just you identifying his distinguishing features. It’s his MO. Leading a small team to kidnap a baby, and leaving one of the parents alive for later? Not many mercs in the Commonwealth who can do that.”

He led her across Diamond City as he spoke, and by the time he’d finished they had wound up outside a shack on the lower stands. It looked abandoned, no lights shining through windows, and she felt uneasy as they approached. Nick reached the door and knelt down by the lock, and Nora heard the jingling of pins in the keyhole as Nick tried to pick the door open.

“One hell of a lock,” he chuckled. “Got something to hide, Kellogg?” He sighed at the broken pins in his hand and stood. “Nope. Guess we’re not getting this open.”

“I couldn’t get that open,” Nora realised. “Piper?”

The reporter held up her hands and gave them an innocent look. “I’m not cut out for that.”

The three of them paused. Nora fiddled with the handle of her pistol, looking back across the dark city to where Valentine’s red neon heart shone. She felt the rising urge to smirk and fought it down.

“…I could go get my power armour,” she suggested.

“Blue,” Piper warned.

“You’d be hard pressed to explain that to the guards,” Nick commented.

“Well, it’s that, or we steal the key from whoever might have it,” Nora informed them. Piper’s eyes lit up.

“Blue, you come with me. Nick, keep Dogmeat here, and just wait,” she said. Nora’s brow rose.

“What are you planning?” she asked the younger woman. The grin that curved Piper’s lips in reply was wicked.

“We’re gonna steal from McDonough.”

 

* * *

 

 

She could feel Nick’s disapproval radiating from his glowing eyes as she slid the key into the lock and twisted it, but it was drowned by the surge of satisfaction she got at seeing the door swing open. The interior was quite sparse – there was a sofa and an old tv, and a desk, and upstairs a bed and dresser. Papers were scattered across the floor.

“Place seem kind of small to you?” Nick asked. “Figured a guy like Kellogg would think big.”

“I’m lacking any ‘dangerous killer mercenary’ vibe,” Piper commented.

“There has to be something,” Nora muttered, pulling open the drawers of his desk.

And then she spotted the big, shiny red button underneath the desktop. She pushed. A section of the wall pulled up and away, exposing a whole new section of the house.

“Well, that’s one way to hide a room,” Nick chuckled.

“Oh yeah,” Piper’s voice perked up from behind her, as Nora stepped into the room. “Yeah, I’m really feeling the ‘killer mercenary’ vibe now.”

Nora knelt down by a low table and examined the contents.

“Gwinnett Stout Beer…forty four calibre bullets…and cigars. ‘San Francisco Sunlights,’” she relayed to Nick.

“Interesting brand,” Nick commented, as she got to her feet and presented him with the cigar. “Won’t lead us anywhere on its own, though.”

“You think his scent will be left on any of these?” Nora asked. “We do have a dog.”

“We do,” the synth agreed. “But, might I make a suggestion?”

“Go ahead.”

“You have no idea what you’ll be facing out there. Even if you’re planning on taking the two of us, plus Dogmeat, I’d still haggle for a fourth gun,” Nick began.

“So, who did you have in mind?” she asked.

“Well, it really depends. Do you mind taking a few days to go back and forth to Goodneighbour?”

“What’s in Goodneighbour?”

Nick grinned. “The best shot in the Commonwealth.”

Piper groaned, and loudly. “Oh god, Nick, really? We’re gonna bring _him_ along?”

“He’s just a hired hand to get this over and done with,” Valentine assured her.  

“Who is this guy, Nick?” Nora asked, somewhat nervous.

“Guy named MacCready.”  


	10. Chapter 10

Nick had advised bringing a fourth gun. Somehow, they got the fourth one early.

They’d made good time from Diamond City that morning, Nick keeping hold of the evidence to keep it from gaining any outside smells that would confused Dogmeat’s nose, and apart from the odd raider or two, they had managed to stay out of sight. It was the first time Nora had seen the city in 200 years, and she could still mark out places she’d been before. It was sad to see it all in ruin.

“I’m surprised nobody was camped out in the Common,” Nora admitted as they walked. Piper snorted, a slightly maniacal sound.

“Didn’t you see the skeletons around the pond, Blue?” Piper asked.

“This entire city is covered in skeletons, Piper,” Nora pointed out. “I wasn’t exactly in the right mindset to notice any more.”

“Then I’ll make it brief, Blue. People go missing round the Common. The raiders haven’t moved in because I’m guessing whatever lives there killed them.”

“Should we investigate?” Nora asked. “I’m wearing Power Armour, I should be fine…”

“Blue,” Piper began, “no. You’ve got to get your son back, not die in the city.”

“I mean, afterwards,” Nora explained. “I’m not just going to get my son back and go home to Sanctuary, or even worse, back to sleep. I’ve got ideas, Piper! Things we could do to make the Commonwealth better.”

“You’re…you know, you’re so…different,” Piper told her. “Most people here are content to just survive. You want more than that.”

“Call it…call it a sparkling, Pre-War view of the world,” Nora chuckled softly. “I see opportunity here, even if this place…does kinda suck.”

“Well, I guess we’ll find out, once you get Shaun back.”

The group continued through the city ruins, stopping for a brief rest in some hidden alcove where Nora massaged the cricks in her neck and sighed. Dogmeat got some scraps, Piper ate a few gumdrops, and Nick smoked. Nora cleaned the barrel of her rifle, head against the solid bulk of her power armour.

That was when they heard Super mutants.

Nora hurriedly climbed back into her armour, the group scrambling to gather up anything they’d dropped before as the beeping of a Suicider reached their ears. Piper led them down a road, heading towards a row of junk fences.

“It’s raiders or mutants!” she yelled.

“Raiders, any day!” Nora called back, Dogmeat at her feet. Nick’s pistol was firing behind them, hoping to cripple a limb or damage an eye, anything to slow down the nine feet of pure, irradiated green muscles chasing them. Piper took point, a Molotov already in one hand, tossing it over the hastily cobbled fences and hearing a scream of pain. They charged through the open gate, skittering around the corner like kittens and taking cover against the solid brick walls. Shouts and screams met their ears, Raiders fighting mutants.

“Get inside!” Nora yelled, gesturing to the door on their left. “Don’t care what’s inside, there are mutants out here!”  

Woman, synth, dog, power armour thundered through the door in the lobby of an old theatre, slamming the heavy wood shut behind them.

“Uhhhhh,” Piper began, pointing to the left, and Nora looked to see three Raiders, clearly bound, kneeling on counters with signs saying ‘RULE BREAKERS’ surrounding them.

“…Okay,” Nora began calmly. “We’re in a building full of raiders. If we go outside, we deal with mutants. We go forwards, we have god knows how many raiders. Votes?”

_‘I’ll find you, little bleeder!’_

They could hear the mutants through the door, and Nora looked through her helmet at her companions.

“Raiders it is.”

 

* * *

 

 

It got messy, a few minutes in, when some mutants stumbled through the door, and Nora had her rifle aimed at one raider in the corner, holed up at the top of the theatre with Piper and Nick covering her. Still the raiders inside, coupled with the small team, managed to kill the rest of them, before Nora’s aim and Dogmeat’s teeth helped the reporter and the detective to kill the building’s other remaining occupants.

Barring two.

Nora took one look at Cait and accepted her contract without a second thought, and the hyped-up brawler joined their group with her fists swinging and her teeth bared. She did offer Tommy Lonegan some caps, but he wouldn’t take them, and Nick reminded her that they were going to be hiring a mercenary, so it was best to keep all the caps they could find. They salvaged what they could from the dead raiders, and Nora gazed in despair at the arm plating that had been damaged during the absolute free-for-all that had occurred.

“So, whose arse are we kicking?” Cait asked with a too-bright grin as they left the building, looking jumpy.

“First, we’re going to Goodneighbour,” Nora told her. “Then, we’re going to track down the mercenary who killed my husband.”

 

* * *

 

 

Nora found more fusion cores between Goodneighbour and the Combat Zone, but nowhere to repair her armour. At the sight of the neon writing that announced their arrival to the settlement, she relaxed a little, having felt her exposed arm like some kind of dead weight all the way there. They got through the gate okay, and a wave of calm washed over the Vault-Dweller as it closed behind them.

Apparently, not everyone was pleased that she was in the company of Nick Valentine. Though, it wasn’t as though the synth was incapable of holding his own. She was close to retaliating, when a voice cut through the air.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it right there, Finn,” it said. “Nick Valentine makes a rare trip to Goodneighbour, and you’re harassing his friend? Step away, man.”

“What do you care, Hancock?” her assailant demanded. “She ain’t one of us.”

“No love for your mayor, Finn?” and then she could see the voice’s owner, dressed in a tricorn and red frock coat, his gait swaggering, looking…he looked like something like a ghoul, but not a ghoul, like his skin was burnt away. He had a rugged, dangerous quality to him. Nora felt heat washing over her and was glad for the power armour she wore. “I said, let her go.”

“You’re soft, Hancock,” the man hissed, disappointed. “You keep letting outsiders walk all over us, one day there’ll be a new mayor.”

Nora watched a redheaded woman wander over to a nearby wall, and watch the man with glittering eyes. She seemed perfectly at ease, but coiled tight as a spring, as the man purred out genial words to his companion, gesturing for him to come closer.

She barely saw the knife.

Finn was dead in seconds.

“Now why’d you have to say that?” he crooned. “Breakin’ my heart over here.”

He looked up.

“You all right, sister?” he murmured to her. She felt vaguely incestuous. The way he said it shouldn’t have gotten to her like it did but it was Valentine’s eyes all over again.

“Yeah,” she managed. “I’m fine.”

“Now don’t let this ‘incident’ taint your view of our little community. Goodneighbour’s of the people, for the people, you feel me? Everyone’s welcome.”

She was certain he was smiling at her, and she felt a little calmer.

“We’re just…looking for MacCready,” she managed.

“Oh yeah? He’s down in the Third Rail,” the man replied. “Oh, name’s Hancock. I’m the mayor. You wanna fix that plating gap, KL-E-0’s got a station in her shop.”

“Thanks,” she breathed.

“Don’t worry about it, _sister_ ,” he purred, grinning at her. Nora felt another wave of warmth spreading through her. “Nick,” he added, acknowledging the detective. “Heard you were in trouble with Malone’s boys.”

“Wasn’t easy getting out,” she heard Nick say, as she and Piper located the power armour station. She stepped out of the armour and they managed to move it close enough to hook it up by the chains. “That over there was my ticket to freedom.”

“The mysterious woman freed the great Nick Valentine,” Hancock said with a whistle. “Huh. Vaultie, eh? Ain’t met one of those in a long time.”

Nora fixed the plates back to the frame, grabbing a welding mask and flipping it down to cover her face as she worked on her armour. Piper helped where she could, and Nora appreciated the willing hand. Cait watched from the doorway, and Dogmeat curled up outside the shop as Nick and Hancock caught up. She wondered how far back the two of them went.

By the time they’d finished getting Nora’s armour repaired, evening was falling, and they headed to the Third Rail, much to Cait’s delight. It was a blocked-off subway with a bar and live music. It felt safe and secure. Nora had left the power armour in the gun shop under the watchful eye of its Assaultron trader. The hope was to find MacCready down here somewhere.

A plan which found itself diverted, the moment the singer began her song.

Nora had been in a college band once, just for fun, whilst getting her degree. She played second fiddle to the lead singer, but occasionally she was allowed to take centre stage. The band had never been serious – just a few gigs in clubs and bars, before they all graduated and had to join the world. But she recalled the tingle of live music on her skin as she’d performed. This woman, clad in red, beautifully made up, crooning out the lyrics to her tune, brought those tingles rushing back like water over a dry riverbed. She could barely hear Piper asking her what she was staring at with how deeply she was concentrating on the singer.

Cait was at the bar when the song finished, and Nora fought her way over to the Mr Handy bartender to order herself a whiskey.

“Who’s the singer?” she asked him, a little breathlessly.

“That is Magnolia, the flower of the Third Rail,” he replied. “Mess with her and you’ll have half of Goodneighbour after your blood.”

“Thanks,” Nora breathed, her face pink.

“Where you goin’?” Cait asked with a grin.

“I…I’m going to speak to Magnolia,” Nora admitted, flushing deeper. The girl cackled.

Nora watched the glamorous woman step off the stage, and hurried over to her. “Hi,” she squeaked.

“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” Magnolia sighed, voice like honey. “Now don’t tell me you didn’t like the song.”

“I loved the song,” Nora told her hurriedly. “It was perfect. It…reminded me of a better time.”

Magnolia laughed. “Well, aren’t you a sweet thing,” she chuckled. “Buy me a drink?”

 

* * *

 

 

“…And that was the last bar we ever played at,” Nora finished, offering Magnolia another drink. The singer accepted, allowing the Vault dweller to top up her glass. “They told us never to speak of the event again and we disbanded shortly after.”

The singer laughed again, taking a drink. “I’m amazed,” she admitted. “I had no idea what life was like before the war. It’s crazy to think of a sweet thing like you doing…that…on a table in some bar in Boston!”

“Oh, it’s very strange,” Nora agreed. “I get such a rush when I sing. It’s like a confidence buzz. I can never…I can’t form words around people when I like them, or think straight, and not just…like everyone else, you know? It’s like fog, blocking my brain.”

“You’re nervous, sweetheart,” Magnolia assured her. “Do you freeze up?”

“No, actually,” Nora realised. “I’m not afraid to _move_ , just _say_. Like, what if I say something wrong, or ruin the mood? Noises are just easier than words.”

“Oh honey,” Magnolia chuckled. “Ain’t that the truth.” She took another drink. “So why’d you really come down here this evening? You clearly weren’t expecting little old me.”

“I came to hire MacCready. I…feel a little sorry for my friends. It’s almost 3 in the morning, and while I can see Cait, I think Nick’s found a quiet corner and I have no idea where Piper could be…”

“MacCready’s in the back room,” Magnolia informed her. “Been there a while. He buys a drink, wanders around, returns to his seat. Hire him before he starts a fight, honey.”

“Thanks, Magnolia,” Nora murmured. “I should find Piper, make sure she’s okay. You think MacCready will be here in the morning?”

“Undoubtedly,” Magnolia assured her. “Now go get some sleep. It’s been a pleasure. And hey, I’m not greedy. I’ll share my stage if you ever want to dip into those fun college days again.”

The Vault dweller let out a nervous giggle. “I…I don’t know if I _can_ …”

“Oh shush, honey. You’ve got a body to die for. I’ve got a dress just your size, in the most gorgeous shade of blue. It’ll match your eyes. Let’s make it a date, hmm?” Magnolia chuckled.

“It’s tempting,” Nora admitted. “Maybe…maybe when things are calmer.”

“Honey, if things get crazy and you need to blow off some steam, you know where to find me.”

Nora wasn’t sure what prompted her to peck Magnolia on the lips, but the singer didn’t seem to mind, and her eyes followed the Vault Dweller’s backside as she located her friends and curled up on the sofa next to Nick Valentine.


	11. Chapter 11

MacCready was a smart mouth and feisty guy, but Nora paid him 250 caps up front and watched him uncurl from his seat, her eyes glancing back to see if Winlock and Barnes were around still. She could see why Piper had moaned at the idea of bringing him along – he had a smirk that was only dented when someone made a smart comment he didn’t like. Still, he was a fifth gun, and with Cait, Piper and Nick at her side, she suddenly felt stronger.

They picked up Nora’s armour from KL-E-0 and left Goodneighbour by mid morning. The path they’d taken yesterday was mostly clear, though it was still almost five hours before they reached the gates of Diamond City.

“May I?” Nora asked Nick. The synth reached into his pockets and handed her the stub of the San Francisco Sunlight. She bent over and held it out to Dogmeat, who sniffed it, and let out an affirmative yap. “Take me to Kellogg, boy.”

“You ready for this, Blue?” Piper asked, as the dog set off. Nora shrugged as best she could in her power armour.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, watching Cait and MacCready ahead of them, following Dogmeat closely, Nick on their heels. “God, at this point, I just want answers.”

“Yeah, I know the feeling,” Piper sighed. “Still, you’ve put together a team…of…something. You’re prepped to take this guy on.”

“I’ll be glad when this is over, when they give me Shaun and I can go home.”

“I know that feeling, Blue. Family’s important to me too. Now come on, Dogmeat’s yapping over there.”

A small pond. A cigar. An underpass. Bloodied bandages. Fencing. More bloodied cloth. Dogmeat led them a long, long way over the Commonwealth, dodging molerats and mongrels as he chased the scent. With each step, Nora’s determination grew, her mind bulging with memories of Nate’s last words and his desperation to protect his son. She saved the shots on the rifle Danse had given her, using her own .50 and enjoying the feeling of five of them, plus Dogmeat, cutting a swathe through their foes.

And then they reached Fort Hagen, and Dogmeat started barking.

“You ready?” Nick murmured to her, golden eyes roving over her. For once, it didn’t elicit a shiver down her spine, and Nora was glad of it. She went silent for a moment, her mind working.

“How long would it take to get to Sanctuary?” she asked.

“Maybe half a day, I’m not sure,” Nick replied. “Why? Aren’t you worried he’s going to run off?”

“I think we should bring Preston,” she told him. “Just…call me paranoid. But he took out a hardened soldier after crossing the Commonwealth and breaching a vault. Having Garvey here would help.”

“You want me to get him?” Nick offered. She hummed.

“MacCready, Cait, would you two buckle down here? Stay hidden, but keep an eye on the Fort. If Kellogg comes out – and you’ll probably know if he does – don’t engage. Watch where he went. And stay safe, both of you. Dogmeat, stay with them. Piper, Nick, you come with me back to Sanctuary.”

“Sure thing, boss,” MacCready said. “Cait, would you take a walk with me?”

“You’re flatterin’ me, MacCready,” the brawler snorted.

“Let’s go.”

 

* * *

 

 

Night was falling by the time they got back to Sanctuary.

“Hey Preston,” Nora murmured, climbing out of that armour. “The settlement you sent me to decided to join the Minutemen.”

Garvey’s face lit up with an angelic smile. He put down his rifle and gestured for her to sit.

“You have no idea how happy I am to hear that,” he said. Nora gave him a returning smile. “I knew you were the right person for the job. I’ve been wondering when you were gonna come back.”

“Had some business to take care of,” Nora replied apologetically. “I went to Diamond City.”

“Tracking your son, right?” Preston asked. “Codsworth turned up with a Miss Nanny a day or so ago. They had a lot of stuff with them. You collected all that? Sturges was giddy.”

“Well, I’ve got news,” she announced. “We’ve found the man who killed my husband, Preston. He’s holed up in Fort Hagen.”

“We?” Preston repeated.

“Nick Valentine and Piper helped out,” the Vaultie explained. “I’ve got two others waiting for me at Fort Hagen.”

Preston whistled. “You’ve built yourself a team, huh.”

“And now I’d like you to join it,” Nora invited.

“Gladly. I owe you. But first…there’s something I’d like to ask,” Preston admitted. “Did I ever tell you how I became the last Minuteman?”

“You said something about Quincy when we first met,” Nora recalled.

“It was a massacre. The town got attacked by gunners. Colonel Hollis’ group – my group – were the only ones who turned up to help anyone. And we never found a safe place when the town fell. Jamaica Plain, Lexington, Concord…if not for you, we’d have died.”

“It’s not your fault, Preston,” Nora murmured.

“I know,” he sighed. “But, I can’t lead the Minutemen. Not alone. And I’m not General material. But…you are.”

“Are you asking me to take control of the Minutemen?” Nora asked.

“I am.”

Nora paused. She smiled.

“Do I get a fancy hat?” she chuckled.

“The general even got a uniform,” Preston promised. Nora stood, offering her hand to him.

“Then I’m aboard. Just call me General Pendleton, Colonel Garvey.”


	12. Chapter 12

Cait and MacCready were holed up in the nearby Red Rocket by the time Nora and the others made it back to Fort Hagen. They had disassembled the fort’s outer defences and were taking a break for lunch when the group found them. Mac had already marked the point of entrance and explained the kind of defences Kellogg could be hiding behind. Dogmeat was lying across MacCready’s lap, and despite the grumpy face the mercenary was putting on, both man and beast seemed quite content with where they were.

“I’ve seen a Synth,” MacCready told them, as they packed up and headed over to the fort. “Old kind. The ones that look like Nicky. Don’t know how deep Fort Hagen goes, but he could have a small army in there.”

“Pre-War forts tend to be built into the ground,” Nora added. “We’re talking probably at least several floors down. Cait, you going to use a gun or keep that baseball bat?”

The Irish girl flashed her a wicked smile. “I’ll use me bat,” she said.

“All right. Kneecap them like you’d do with a normal human. Even a Synth can’t run with a busted leg. Preston, I’ll take point, but I want you on my six. MacCready, you’ll be scouting. Piper, Nick, collect whatever you can find. Don’t be afraid to reach for your guns if you get in trouble. We don’t get separated, is that clear?”

“Clear.”

“Lastly, scavenge as much as you can. I’ll pay you for the junk you pick up.”

“Boss, you’ve got a weird hobby,” Mac muttered.

“It’ll make sense,” she promised, cocking the rifle Danse had given her.

“We all know what we’re doing?” Preston asked. There was a general murmur of assent.

“Mac, show us the way. Let’s go hunt a mercenary,” Nora hissed, and the five of them followed MacCready down to the emergency exit of Fort Hagen.

 

* * *

 

 

The top floors were crawling with synths, loaded with gun turrets. The invaders flipped over desks and broke down doors to find cover, lobbing grenades and molotovs to keep their attacks at bay. Room by room, they slowly inched through. Scrap disappeared off the tables, lockers and boxes were raided for their goods. Nora’s rifle was kept loaded by the constant stream of fusion cells she was finding on the frames of the Gen 1 and 2s, and eventually Piper stowed her own rifle away and picked up an Institute laser. Dogmeat used his bodyweight to drag down whichever synth tried to run at them, and more than one had gone pelting towards Nora, only to clatter to the floor with a mass of fur and muscle on top of it.

MacCready tried to horde the magazine they found, and Nora offered him some caps if he’d let her read it first. He took the deal but he wasn’t happy. Cait seemed to be in her element, smashing apart synth bodies with gusto. Nora watched her whenever the gunfire died down, and thought she seemed drugged. Nora’s power armour was holding up against the onslaught, double-plated around her stomach to deflect all gunfire from the child in her. Preston was proving apt at keeping their backs covered, and Nick hacked a terminal mid-fight to shut down a laser turret, easing off the strain on the party as they cleared the last room.

“Anything upstairs?” Nora asked. Piper went to look.

“Just a ladder,” she called back.

“Probably leads to the roof,” Nick said. “There’s some nice gear behind this door.”

Cait was already cracking open the crate of ammunition and MacCready was reloading by the time they got there. There were a few Stimpaks and a combat set lying around in the lockers. They shared out the armour between them, reinforcing wherever they felt was their weak spot.

“There’s one elevator, and it doesn’t look like it can hold six,” Nora said. “Cait, Mac, would you two take Dogmeat and go down first?”

“Are we the sweep and clear team?” Mac asked with a chuckled. “Got it, boss.”

“Piper, Preston, Nick and I are going to double-check this floor. Yell when the elevator comes back up.”

“You got it, General. We’ll make sure nothing happens to the others,” Preston told her.

“See you down there,” Nora replied.  She gestured to Nick to follow her into one of the adjacent rooms, and the two of them picked through the ruins to see if there was anything left. She paused, and then took off her helmet, turning to face him.

“Nick?” she asked.

“Hmm?”

“Who are you? You’re a synth, but…”

“Ah,” he said, picking up a roll of duct tape. “I see why you wanted to be away from Piper for this. All right, since you’ve trusted me with finding your son, it’s only fair you know who you’re working with. I’m a Gen 2 synth, yeah, but I’ve got the memories of an old, Pre-War detective. His name was Nick Valentine. How I got from A to B is pretty fuzzy. I remember being in a science lab, and then one day I woke up in a dumpster. Guess the Institute didn’t want me.”

“That isn’t fair,” she commented, brows furrowing. “They just tossed you out?”

“Yep.” He stowed the tape away.

“What kind of people are these Institute bastards?” she muttered. “I just...I remember the name Nick Valentine. I used to be a lawyer, back when that kind of thing existed. Think I worked on some case he was mentioned on.”

“But you never met him?”

“No. If he was anything like you, he must’ve been a good guy.”

Nick’s worn face broke into a smile, and his yellow eyes beamed at her. “Shucks, doll,” he chuckled. “You know how to make a synth blush, eh?”

“I didn’t mean to!” she whispered, her face burning. Nick’s brow rose, just as Piper yelled from the other room. “I…you’ve been good to us so far, Nick. I don’t know how far we’d have gotten without you.”

“We?” Nick repeated.

“Oh. Right. Me. Yes. I meant me,” she amended quickly. “Look, don’t worry. Let’s get done with Kellogg first.”

“Sure thing,” he muttered.

“…Nick? Just…quickly. I don’t know if you noticed, when we met…and when we met Hancock…I reacted strangely…”

“You got a little breathless. I noticed you blushed just now, you the shy type?” he asked.

“Kind…of. Just…I want to talk to Kellogg, before we kill him. If I…react like that, please don’t judge me?”

Nick leaned up against a desk and surveyed her, watching heat turn her face a dark red.

“Is this what I think it is?” he finally said.

“That…that depends.”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of. All people have those little switches that trigger these kinds of things. If voices are what gets you, I understand.”

“I just don’t want you thinking any less of me.”

Nick stood, waving her over to follow him to the elevator doors. “I haven’t known you long, but from what I’ve seen, you’re a brave woman stepping into a strange new world. You’re your own person with a great moral compass. It’s not your fault that certain things get you going.”

“Because Kellogg’s voice-”

“No, you don’t need to say it aloud. It’s okay. I understand where that shame is coming from. Just keep your helmet on, and nobody will notice.”

The elevator arrived, and Nora put the T45 helmet back on her head, taking a deep breath. They climbed in, and the doors shut behind them.

“Look, if you ever need to talk…I found it difficult to adjust to life here at first, with all the memories. You’re doing great, but if you get overwhelmed, we can talk for as long as you need. Ellie always said I was a good listener,” Nick told her as the elevator descended.

“You’re a good man, Nick,” Nora said. “Thankyou.”

“No problem, doll.”

The ‘ding’ as the elevator met the next floor was irritatingly peppy, and they climbed out to see a long hallway with the burning remains of a few synths and a gun turret at the end.

“Hello?” Nora called.

“Down the hallway, General!” Preston’s voice replied, from an area passed the burning gun turret. Nora and Nick made their way to the end and found the remainder of their group, taking a quick break and downing some water. “Not many synths here. They’re probably further in.”

“Oh yeah, Garvey, that’s real uplifting,” Mac sniped.

“Okay, let’s just get going,” Nora began. “Unless anyone’s got any injuries that need tending to?”

“Well, maybe Piper’s got something that needs kissing better?” MacCready said with a smirk. The reporter shot him a look.

“Never gonna happen, MacCready,” she promised.

“All right, if we’re finished shit-flinging, kids,” Nora murmured.

“Jesus, Mom,” Piper muttered, and her eyes widened. “I meant Blue!”

Nora’s eyes widened behind her helmet as somebody spluttered, and she gestured for the group to move, letting Nick take point this time as they traipsed down the stairs. The synth was fiddling with a trapped door when there was a sudden click, and then a voice flooded the room.

_“Well, if it isn’t my old friend, the frozen tv dinner. Last time we met, you were cosying up to the peas and apple cobbler.”_

“Holy shit,” Mac swore.

“Intercom,” Nora hissed.

“That’s the asshole who shot your husband and stole your baby?” Mac asked.

“Kellogg,” the Vaultie confirmed. Her heart was thrumming. Her skin burned. His voice was pulling across her skin like silk even as her mouth tightened. Adrenaline flooded her body. She was going to kill him. She could still hear him calling her ‘the backup’, the growl as he threatened Nate, her teeth grinding, and she remembered the gunfire, and tightened her grip on her gun.

“You’re gonna break that,” Nick said gently. “It’s okay, Nora.”

“I’m giving him one chance to surrender,” the Vault Dweller announced. “And if he doesn’t take it, he’s dead.”

“More generosity than I’d give the fucker,” Cait muttered. Nick had the door open, and the sweep began, looting the room as Nora tramped down the stairs, buzzing, restless, jaw tight beneath the helmet.

_“Sorry your house has been a wreck for 200 years, but I don’t need a roommate. Leave.”_

The group proceeded into the command centre, stopping to pause and survey the room. There was a lot of tech but very little scrap, and as they bunkered down against a small wave of synths, the intercom clicked again.

_“Never expected you to come knocking at my door. Gave you a 50/50 chance of reaching Diamond City. After that? Figured the Commonwealth would chew you up like jerky.”_

The red laser broke through a synth’s shell and Nora reloaded, aiming at the machine’s head, ducking as Piper tossed a Molotov.

_“But you survived. You got some friends. I’m impressed.”_

“This guy is a serious jerk!” Piper yelled.

“No shit,” Nora muttered, as they cleared the corridor of synths. “Any way of getting that door open?”

Nick went over to have a look, and then turned back to her, shaking his head. “Maglocks,” he replied. “There a terminal around here?”

“Not that I can see. Let’s get going.”

_“Look. You’re pissed off. I get it. I do. But whatever you hope to accomplish in here? It is not going to go your way.”_

“100 caps to anyone who can shoot any of the intercoms,” Nora muttered, as they turned the corner. She poked her head into the first room on their left, cocking her rifle. “Nick, can you get on that terminal and see what’s on it? Cait, Mac, get through that door into the other room. See what’s in there. Piper, Preston, can you two clear out these footlockers? I’m going to have a look in the lockers out here.”

Dogmeat stayed at her heels as she combed through the old metal lockers, hearing the click and beep of Nick working his magic on the terminal.

“There’s a turret somewhere up ahead that I just shut down,” he called to her.

“I got a door open!” Cait shouted from the back room. “There’s some sweet shit in here.”

“Hey, uh, Blue,” Piper began. “Do you…do you like red?”

“Why do you ask?” Nora inquired, sticking her head around the door. “Oh my god.”

Piper had pulled a beautiful, glittery red dress out of one of the lockers. She was holding it up to her body, staring down at the gorgeous piece of clothing with barely concealed desire.

“Hey, keep that if you want it,” Nora invited.

“Oh god, really?”

“Yes.”

Cait and MacCready appeared from the other room as Preston and Piper finished up looting the footlockers. They pulled out of the room and peered around the corner down the stairwell.

“I see the turret,” Nick noted, and then a synth peeked its head around the wall on the other side and the air filled with gunfire.

“Piper, there’s a door down the end of the corridor,” Nora began. “Would you?”

“Sure thing, Blue,” the reporter said, nipping ahead and investigating. “It’s a restroom,” she called. “And you couldn’t pay me enough caps to take a shower in here.”

“Anything good?”

There was a short pause, and then Piper emerged.

“I just followed your example, and picked up everything,” the reporter said with a grin.

“Cheek,” Nora murmured, as they descended the stairs to the next level. They cleared an office, a med-bay, and a cafeteria. Halfway through raiding the latter, another group of synths appeared, and whilst Piper was picking up a bobblehead, the others gunned down the machines. Preston followed a small side exit down a tunnel and found a toolbox with a few items in, including a password. He tossed it to Nora, who opened the next door to reveal another tunnel.

_“You’ve got guts and determination, and that’s admirable. But you are in over your head in ways you can’t possibly comprehend.”_

“Sure you want to ask him to surrender?” Mac muttered.

“I’m still deciding,” she replied darkly.

The tunnel was suspiciously clear.

 _“It’s not too late._ _Stop. Turn around, and leave. You have that option._ _Not a lot of people can say that.”_

Nick was on the nearby terminal with the password as they split up and swept the rooms clean. Cait was with him when the security door swung open to pick a lock on the next door, and Nora heard a screech of laughter from up the corridor. She made her way back up to the armoury, and her eyes widened.

“Holy fucking shit,” Cait was breathing, holding the Fat Man. “Holy shit. Goddamn.”

“Christ,” Piper barked, appearing behind Nora, who took the offered weapon.

“The U.S Military says hello,” MacCready chuckled. “Boss…”

“Hello Minuteman armoury,” Nora commented. “We could do with this.”

“Oh my god,” Preston gasped. “General…”

“What do you think, Colonel?” Nora said with a soft giggle. “Think that’s an acceptable use of this glorious thing?”

“I can’t say no to it,” Preston admitted, his eyes wide. Nora fought back a grin.

“Good. Because I’m keeping it.” She looked around the group. “I have a feeling we’re close. Any injuries? No? Good. Reload.”

The sudden appearance of clean white furniture from behind the door surprised everyone, jarring them from the ruined surroundings, and then the intercom clicked again. Nora heard Kellogg sigh.

_“Okay. You made it. I’m just up ahead. My synths are standing down. Let’s talk.”_

“You all right, Blue?” Piper murmured. The Vaultie hefted her laser rifle.

“Yeah,” she breathed. “Let’s go.

The lights in the command centre snapped on, as Kellogg strode from behind the computer desks with three synths, his hands in the air.

“There she is,” he began. “The most resilient woman in the Commonwealth. Let’s…talk.”

“Yeah,” Nora murmured. “Talk. I believe in making things simple, Kellogg. Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you.”

“I don’t have a goddamn reason,” the mercenary replied fairly. “I’m impressed at your wits, lady. You could’ve given up after leaving the Vault and seeing this shithole. Could’ve just curled up and gone to sleep forever. But you didn’t. You tracked me down. You must be _real_ determined to find your son.”

“That’s it?” Nora hissed. “You killed my husband and stole my child, and this is all you’ve got to say to me?! Well done for getting this far? Fuck you, Kellogg. You destroyed my family.”

“What do you want?” he replied. “Evil laughter? My plans to destroy the world? I’m a hired killer, just like your little friend in the back. I’m just better at it. I’m not choosy with what I do. Don’t get me wrong – we never meant to take your husband out. We just wanted the kid, but goddamn if that man didn’t have a grip.”

“Nate was a soldier,” Nora snarled. “In a fair fight he would’ve destroyed you.”

“Look around you,” Kellogg barked, laughing. “Does this world seem fair? Your generation fucked it up, lady. Now we have to squat in the ruins. The Institute is the only place that isn’t a total shithole. The life Shaun has there is the most comfortable he could have ever lived. Let him go.”

“Let him go? Fuck that. He’s my son. He’s all I have left, and if you were a parent, you’d understand that,” she spat. Kellogg’s brows lowered.

“I _was_ a parent.”

“Then how dare you tell me to do otherwise.”

He actually laughed. “Goddamn. You are one hell of a woman. You would’ve been a good mother.”

“Surrender,” Nora told him coolly. “I’m letting you walk away this once. I won’t do it again.”

“I like your style,” he said, his voice tinged with admiration. “You’re something else. If I don’t kill you, the Commonwealth’s going to be in for a reckoning.”

“So, that’s what you want? A fight?” Nora finally asked.

“Looks like it,” he agreed calmly. “Ready?”

“I’d say I’m sorry for this,” she began, staring down at him through the glass of her helmet, “but I’m incredibly bad at lying.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is canon divergence here - the Prydwen's not turning up for a little while yet.

Kellogg’s Gen 1s and 2s were disposed of quickly. Nora had effectively outnumbered him with her small group, and despite his skills, once MacCready had sniped and kneecapped him, Cait broke his hand. A small group of older gen synths poured through the door, distracting them, but the brawler kept the mercenary pinned, Mac’s gun poking the back of his head. By the time Nora turned back to him, panting heavily in her suit, he was wheezing in pain.

“I say we use the Fat Man on ‘im,” Cait drawled.

“Let’s just make this quick,” Nora muttered. “You want any last words?”

“Given time, I could’ve liked you,” the mercenary chuckled, and nodded to her. She shot him in the head, and watched her companions jump back as the viscera sprayed over the room.

“You holding up okay?” Piper murmured. Nora closed her eyes.

“Somehow…that didn’t feel as satisfying as I’d hoped,” she admitted. The reporter placed her hand on Nora’s armour gently.

“What do you want to do now?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Nora finally said. She could feel the defeat thrumming through her. Kellogg was gone. Shaun wasn’t here. And she had no idea what to do.

“Should we head back to Diamond City?” Nick suggested.

“I…maybe that would be best,” Nora agreed. “We should probably search this place thoroughly first.”

MacCready poked Kellogg’s head with his rifle and made a noise of disgust. “Hey, boss, checkout his brain. There’s some real high tech sh- stuff in his head.”

She climbed out of her suit, crouching down to retrieve his gun, and then reached a hand in, pulling out what was left of the man’s brain.

“A brain, huh?” Nick called. “Got anything to put it in? I think you’ve given me an idea.”

She shoved the brain piece into a box, searching him until she found a password, and some of the tech the Institute had used on him.

“Barely even human,” she muttered, standing. She paused. And then she reached down, and pulled the clothes off of his corpse.

“Oh god, _Blue_ ,” Piper wailed in disgust. Nora breezed past her, heading over to the desk as her group stripped the room clean of anything they considered useable. She inputted the password and clicked on the log.

 _Access: Local. Login: Kellogg  
Notes: The boy,_ _Shaun, successfully delivered back to_ _the Institute, payment received. New orders to track down_ _renegade, gathered reinforcements, cleared out and secured Fort Hagen. We move out soon._

“Track down renegade,” Nora murmured. “He was hunting someone. Someone Institute?”

“Could be,” Nick agreed. “Can I take a look at that bit of brain you found?”

“Sure,” she began, handing him to box. Nick took it, opening the lid and pulling out the piece.

“Hmm. Notice all this tech attached? I’ve seen similar things in Institute Synths. In theory…in theory, someone could probably read this.”

“Read a brain?” Nora asked.

“Yep,” Nick agreed, putting the piece back. “Ever been to the Memory Den? It’s a place in Goodneighbour. They have these loungers that let you relive your memories. They’re kept by a woman named Doctor Amari. If anyone could make this brain sing, it’d be her.”

“So Goodneighour it is,” Nora decided. She cast her eyes back over Kellogg’s corpse. “…should we bury him?”

“Seems might kind of you to even offer,” Nick grunted. “But…if you want.”

“Thanks, Nick,” she said gently. “Hey, Cait, Mac?”

The two of them looked up at her questioningly.

“Wanna go with us to Goodneighbour? Or…Preston, would you take them with you to Sanctuary?” she asked.

“Sure, General,” he said softly. She walked over to him, and folded him into a careful hug.

“I’m not getting rid of you,” she promised. “But Cait’s got raw muscle and MacCready’s one of the best snipers I’ve ever seen. I thought you might like them to keep the settlers safe.”

The corners of his mouth lifted a little. “Thanks, General. You stay safe out there.”

“You too, Garvey.”

 

* * *

 

 

It took them several days to get to Goodneighbour, including a short stop in the place Nora had cleared out before. Hangman’s Alley, Piper had called it. As they tossed out corpses, the Vault Dweller could see why the name had stuck. By the time they reached Goodneighbour, Piper and Nora were worn ragged, and even Dogmeat was dragging his paws a little. Still, they’d dumped all of the salvaged junk back at the settlements they’d passed, and they took a short detour to sell off the guns and armour to KL-E-0 and Daisy before taking the short trip across the town to the Memory Den. It turned out to be the infamous Scollay Square, and as they headed past the bright red door, Nora tried to remember if she’d ever had reason to come down here before.

She doubted it.

It turned out that Nick was a very popular man here, and his interaction with Irma made her grin.

“So, what’s the story behind that, huh Nick?” Nora teased, leaving her power armour behind as they descended to Amari’s clinic.

“Oh, this and that,” the Detective murmured.

“Mhmm,” Piper muttered. “Let’s not.”

“I agree,” Nick chuckled.

They reached the bottom of the stairs, and Nick called for Doctor Amari as they rounded into her clinic.

“Nick Valentine?” Amari began. “What’s this about?”

“We need your help, doctor,” Nora told her. “I need the memories from a man named Kellogg but…well, he’s dead.”

“I know it’s asking for a miracle, Amari, but you’ve pulled off the impossible before,” Nick added, as the woman looked between the three of them, brow furrowing.

“Are you mad?” she demanded. “Even putting aside the fact that you want me to defile a corpse, I need living brains if the memory loungers are going to function, intact ones!”

“This dead brain had information the Institute, Amari,” Nick told her. “The biggest scientific secret in the Commonwealth. I know your affiliations. You need this. So do we.”

“I’ll…take a look,” the doctor finally said. “I can guarantee nothing.”

“That’s all I’d ask,” Nora said, and handed the box over. “Thankyou.”

Amari plucked the piece of brain carefully from the box, looking it over with marvel and disgust. “This isn’t a brain,” she muttered. “It’s the…it’s the hippocampus. What’s that attached to it? Some kind of…neural interface? Fascinating…”

“Institute circuitry,” Nick added.

“It matches the architecture of other Institute hardware,” Amari agreed.

“Compatible with other Institute hardware?” Nora asked.

“Absolutely,” the doctor told her. “Why, are you…”

“Nick,” Nora began.

“But this could put him at tremendous risk,” Amari added. Nora’s face fell.

“I can’t ask that of you,” she said, looking over at the synth. Nick smiled at her.

“Don’t worry about me. Amari, wire me up.”

“Then have a seat,” Amari invited.

“Sure. Pull me out if I start cackling like an old, grizzled mercenary,” Nick muttered. Nora chuckled softly. Amari bent down, brain piece in hand, and began to tinker with the back of Nick’s head, tongue sticking out of her mouth in concentration.

“I need you to keep talking to me, Mr Valentine,” she said. “Even a slight change in your cognitive functions could be dire.” She paused, slotting the piece into place. “Are you…feeling any different?”

“There’s a lot of flashes…static…” Nick grunted, looking pained. Nora reached for his hand quickly, feeling concern rising in her gut. “I…I can’t make sense of any of it, doc.”

Amari sighed, straightening up. “It’s as I feared. The Institute encoded the mnemonic impressions as a last resort. They’re locked.”

“Can we break the lock?” Nora asked, gazing down at her friend. Nick shot her a soft smile.

Amari’s brow furrowed again, and she looked back and forth between the two. “Let me think…”

“You okay, Nick?” Nora asked gently.

“It’s…a little hazy,” he admitted.

“The encryption is too strong for one mind,” Amari mused. “But…two minds?”

“Two minds?” Nora repeated.

“Yes. We load both you and Mr Valentine into the memory loungers,” the doctor began. “Run your cognitive functions in parallel. He acts as a host, and you drive through the memories.”

“I don’t have much choice,” Nora sighed. “Thank you, Amari. This means a lot to me.”

“Just sit down over there, on the lounger,” Amari urged. “And…keep your fingers crossed.”

Nora moved across the room, and was leaning down to get into the lounger when a hand gripped hers and squeezed gently. She looked up to see Piper gazing down at her, green eyes wide with concern.

“You be careful,” she said softly. Nora shot her a calming smile.

“I’ll be fine,” the Vault Dweller assured her.

“See you on the other side,” Valentine called with a dark chuckle, as Nora lay back and watched the lounger close. Dogmeat pressed a paw against the glass, whining.

“Initiating brain wave migration between the transplant and the host,” Amari announced, and Nora heard the clack of keys as she worked her neurological magic. “Mnemonic activity detected! It’s weak, but it’s there! We’re going to load you into the strongest memories we can find. They might not…be…stable…”

 _All right, Kellogg_ , Nora thought. _Time to poke around in your head._

 

* * *

 

 

**Can you hear me?**

The world had gone white, and the place Nora found herself in was…strange. Lights flashed, fuzzy, in the background. Amari’s voice was not so much in her ear as in her head. It was odd.

 _Down the rabbit hole I go, I guess_.

 **The memories are fragmented. We’re going to try and find something on the Institute. You’ll have to step through whatever intact memories we can find**.

 _Wonderful_.

She watched, or felt, as a bridge opened to the first memory, suddenly acutely aware of the beat of her heart.

 **Remember** , Amari began, **you are experiencing these memories as Kellogg. Prepare for some disorientation.**

 _I AM Kellogg_ , Nora suddenly realised as she followed the bridge. _This isn’t just his head…it’s him. I’m him. Oh god…_

She was not prepared to see him as a child. He looked so innocent dressed in those pajamas, a small, dark-skinned child with a mother who handed him a gun. She would have balled her fists – she _knew_ that gun – but she could feel Kellogg’s voice around her, that scotch and silk wrapping her up.

The heartbeats increased.

Nora cursed.

**This doesn’t seem to be what we’re looking for.**

Amari cut off the memory dismissively and she almost jumped. She wandered down the new bridge, and her jaw dropped at the new memory. She remembered his words from For Hagen.

**_I was a parent._ **

Little Mary Kellogg was beautiful. Nora felt her heart hurting. She knew how this story ended. She watched Sarah. She watched how Kellogg held his wife’s hand, the gentle reassurances, _it’s gonna be okay, I promise._ She knew how that line ended. She wanted to linger, to listen to the easy banter, and she admired the baby for as long as she could. There was a lurch in her gut when the baby cried, and just as Conrad- as _Kellogg_ \- went to comfort his baby, Amari dragged her into a new memory.

**_How did you think this was gonna end, Kellogg?_ **

_Oh god. No. No, please. Don’t say I have to see them…_

She didn’t want to imagine Sarah’s dead face or the body of the baby. She shoved her way through this memory, willing Amari to move her on. She couldn’t watch his stoic back disappearing down the hallway. She felt her heartbeat irregular around her, a pained sound.

 _How could you?_ _How could you inflict that pain on me, you bastard?! You saw their bodies but I watched mine die and disappear! You…oh god, your pain…your rage…_

**You need to calm down, please…**

There was no room here for deep breaths but she tried to cool her emotions anyway. The beating slowed, and a yap cut through her mind. She skipped his wastelander life, not interested in the killing. Up ahead, the next memory glowed. She saw synths.

He looked younger here, but still with the vicious scars across his head. The woman talking to him remained impressively businesslike even after he destroyed her synthetic bodyguards. She watched him strike his deal with the devil, and moved on.

She didn’t want to move on.

_God. No. Please. No, no, no…_

**_Manual Override Initiated. Cryogenic stasis suspended._ **

Nora watched through Kellogg’s eyes, heart pounding like a drum around her. Amari begged her to calm down but she couldn’t. She could feel the phantom gun in her hands, pulling the trigger on Nathan Pendleton, and in bitter agony examined herself through the eyes of the mercenary who’d done it.

**_I understood that kind of revenge, no one better. But I was cocky enough to assume I could handle some soft, Pre-War Vault Dweller, even if she somehow did get thawed out._ **

_You were wrong. You were wrong, you’re dead and I’m in your brain, and you are getting me to my son, you bastard…_

The next memory…

_He’s got his daddy’s eyes. My baby’s alive, and he’s got Nate’s eyes._

The domestic scene made her want to vomit. Kellogg’s emotions rose up around her, pushing at her, the peace he’d felt giving way to tension as the… _Courser_ …spoke with him.

 _Doctor Brian Virgil_ , she noted. _Hiding in the Glowing Sea. The where?_

She watched her son walk over to the Courser, standing by his side, and found a lump in her throat. In _Kellogg’s_ throat. He was…sad. He was going to miss Shaun. Nora felt the oddest sensation of pity as the mercenary watched them teleport out.

 **Teleportation!** Amari gasped. **No one’s found the entrance to the Institute…because there _is_ no entrance!**

_GET ME OUT._

It was a short, clear message, broadcasted across the brainwaves, and Amari murmured gently to her to hold on tight. Nora shot one last look at the long figure, across the memory of his house, and as the world disappeared in a flash of light, she was almost certain their eyes met.


	14. Chapter 14

Nora’s eyes were wet and blurry as she climbed out of the lounger, and she almost fell again. Amari grasped her hand, and helped her up gently.

“Slow movements, okay?” the doctor told her. “I don’t know what kind of side effects the procedure might’ve had. No one…no one’s ever done this before.”

Nora inhaled deeply, wiping her eyes with shaking fingers. Amari guided her into the nearest chair, and found her a can of purified water, stepping back. The Vault Dweller chugged greedily, cleaning her eyes with the back of her hand.

 _He was sad_ , she thought, examining the salt water coating her fingers. _And angry. He loved that kid. He loved my son. God, my head is killing me._

“How do you feel?” Amari asked gently.

“Like hell,” Nora croaked. “My head…it’s on fire.”

“That’s to be expected,” Amari murmured. “The synapses in your brain have been pulled apart, connected to someone else, and put back together. I did inject you with a large Stimpak whilst I was pulling you out. It should ease things.”

“Thanks,” Nora whispered.

“Are you…ready to talk about what happened in there?” Amari asked cautiously.

“I…I saw Kellogg’s life,” Nora breathed. “Who he was…what he did…his _emotions_ , god…he ruined my family but I was in his _head…_ I don’t even know what to say.”

“How does that…make you feel?” Amari inquired.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Two sets of feelings…it’s gonna take a while…”

“But we know now how he got in and out,” Amari added. “Teleportation. Incredible.” She sighed. “But we’re still at a dead end. We have no idea how to get into the Institute.”

“Kellogg…he was tracking that scientist. Virgil,” Nora recalled. “We have to find him.”

“The rogue scientist,” Amari agreed. “But…in the Glowing Sea? That’s ridiculous. No one would go there to hide.”

“Why?” Nora asked.

“The name says it all,” Amari told her. “Glowing. Radiation. Only very unpleasant, highly dangerous things live in the Glowing Sea. That exposure can kill a man in seconds. For an Institute scientist to run there alone…just how desperate was he?”

“But if it’s that dangerous, the Institute would think twice about following him, wouldn’t they?” Nora said, and chugged the rest of the water.

“That must be it!” the doctor agreed. “He’s using the Glowing Sea as a protective cloak, a shield. You’ll have to do the same if you want to track him down.”

“Thanks, Amari,” Nora murmured. “This is a lot to think about.”

“By the way, I ran a diagnostic on you just before I pulled you out,” the other woman told her. “Vital signs reading just fine for both of you.”

“Both of us?” Nora asked.

“You…are aware that you’re pregnant?” Amari said softly, as Piper came down the stairs. The reporter’s eyes widened.

“Yes, I was,” Nora told her. “Hey…Piper…”

“Jesus Blue,” Piper gasped. “Was this information gonna be shared with the team any time soon?”

“Now…isn’t the time for this,” Nora rebutted weakly. “Thanks…Amari…see you.”

“Of course,” the doctor murmured, as Nora and Piper left the room.

“Dogmeat started going crazy while you were in the lounger,” Piper told her. “You were crying and he started yelping and pawing at the glass. I had to take him out. Shit, Nora, you’re having a baby?”

“Later, Piper,” Nora begged. “Where’s Nick?”

“Got unplugged first. He’s over at the far end of the room,” the reporter replied. The two women ascended the stairs, and crossed the large hall to where Nick Valentine sat, with Dogmeat by his side. He looked almost subdued, but when Nora approached, he looked up.

“Hey Valentine,” she murmured, reaching down to stroke Dogmeat’s head.

 _“Hope you got what you were looking for inside my head,”_ a familiar voice chuckled. Piper fumbled for her rifle as Nora drew her pistol. _“I was right,”_ he added, with a dark laugh. _“Should’ve killed you when you were on ice.”_

 _Don’t react, don’t do a thing_ , Nora prayed, willing the hot flush to cease pummelling her body. “Kellogg?” she whispered.

“Wha-what?” Nick asked, almost as though waking up from a dream. “What are you talking about?”

“You…okay?” Nora finally inquired, her fingers shaking as she put her gun away. Piper was still tense by her side, just touching the trigger of her rifle.

“Yeah, why?” the detective asked, standing.

“Kellogg spoke through you,” Nora told him, swallowing. Nick’s eyes focussed on her and she felt the familiar heat washing over her.

“Did he?” Nick asked. “Well…I feel fine, so let’s get going. Where are we headed?”

“Sanctuary,” Nora told him. “There’s something I need to do.”

“And something you need to tell us,” Piper muttered. Nora’s jaw tightened.

“Piper, please…”

“Got it,” the reporter sighed.

“I’m completely in the dark,” Nick murmured. “You okay, doll? You look shaken.”

“I’ve just been in someone’s head. Someone I hated,” Nora said softly. “It’s been a long day.”

“We’re here for you, right Piper?” Nick said, squeezing her arm gently.

“Yeah,” Piper finally agreed. Nora smiled at them both weakly, and moved away to climb back into her power armour.

“Let’s get back to Sanctuary,” she began, her voice distorted by the helmet.

 

* * *

 

 

The journey back to Sanctuary took several detours before Nora was satisfied. The first detour brought them to Oberland Station, in time to break a siege by Super Mutants, and the bodies were barely cooled by the time the settlers pledged their support to the Minutemen. Nora left them with the supplies to reinforce their fences, trading them for a spare fusion core, and headed her small band up in a north-east direction.

The next detour was Cambridge Police Station. Paladin Danse was out of his armour, Haylen at the terminal, Rhys skulking around the perimeter. Nora got out of her own armour and left Piper and Nick outside, letting Dogmeat stay at her heels.

“Paladin Danse?” she called. The man looked up and Nora suppressed the desire to inhale sharply at the sight of him. Oh, he was a big man, even out of the armour, and without his hood…The thick mop of dark chocolate hair on his head, melting down to the stubble lining his jaw and neck…he was practically wet dream material. God, that was inappropriate.

“Ms Pendleton,” he recalled. “What are you doing back here?”

“Wanted to check in. Are you doing okay?”

“We’re managing to keep the ghouls down,” Danse replied. “You change your mind about joining the Brotherhood?”

“Unfortunately, I’m in no position to do anything like that right now,” she sighed. “Look…Danse…I’m not familiar with the Commonwealth. I have no idea what the Brotherhood does or how they operate. I don’t know if you guys have protocols for…alliances.”

“Alliances?” Danse repeated.

“I’m the General of the Minutemen,” she told him. “If you need help getting supplies or extra guns whilst you’re bunkered down here, I can aid you. There’s a settlement going up at Starlight Drive-In, and one at Oberland Station. We’re trying to get Graygarden to join us.”

“That’s generous of you, but we’re fine as we are right now,” the Paladin assured her.

“The offer’s always there,” Nora said.

“Thankyou. And what do you mean by alliances?” Danse asked.

“From what I’ve seen, the Brotherhood has firepower. As we are, the Minutemen are getting to be the local militia again. The settlements we look after produce a lot of food. You’re soldiers. Soldiers need feeding. If your troops roll in needing places to stay or eat, I’d imagine the settlers would be more than happy to trade food for guns, or even just a little protection.”

“You make an interesting offer,” Danse told her. Nora smiled, and tried to ignore how his voice was making her stomach flutter.

“Just…think about it,” she requested. “Put it in your report to whoever’s in command.”

“I will. Again, thankyou.”

“No problem, Paladin.”

“Will you be coming around again soon?” Danse asked, gazing at her.

“I don’t think I’ll be travelling too far from home,” Nora told him.

“Then, Ad Victoriam, General Pendleton,” the Paladin stated.

“Stay safe,” she said, and left the police station. Piper and Nick were outside, and Piper’s head tilted in confusion.

“Nora…your face is lit up like the Glowing Sea.”

“Oh god, is it?” the Vault Dweller whispered.

“…yeah. What…happened in there?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Nora sighed in disappointment.

 

* * *

 

 

It took them the rest of the day to get back to Sanctuary, and the moon was already high in the sky by the time the four of them arrived. MacCready was on lookout, and Nora watched him clamber down off the roof of the nearest house and lean against the Sanctuary sign. The place was looking good. Cait’s raw strength had been put to work starting to shore up the old walls by the river. Jun and Marcy were planting a small harvest of vegetables, and Nora made a mental note to buy more tatos and corn when she could. Mama Murphy was sat in a chair washing mutfruit. Nora heard more footsteps from behind her and turned to see Sturges following them up the road from Red Rocket, a cheery smile on his face.

“Howdy, General,” he said. “Good to see you again.”

“You’re damn right it is,” MacCready muttered as they drew closer. “I’ve been bored out of my skull. Got a job for me?”

“Get Cait for me?” Nora suggested. “I need to speak with everyone.”

She could almost see MacCready’s eyes roll into his skull as he scampered away to find the Irish brawler. The group made their way up the road, and Nora climbed out of her armour, leaving it in the bay.

“Meeting in my house, five minutes,” she began, looking over at Nick and Piper. “Can you tell Codsworth and Curie for me?”

“Sure,” Piper replied, heading away, as Nick stood behind Nora, looking nervous.

“Doll,” Nick began. “Do you trust me?”

“Is this about Kellogg?” Nora asked, pulling off her combat leather and tossing it onto the workbench.

“Yeah,” Nick admitted. “He could be hiding in my head. One wrong move…”

“Nick,” Nora said softly, reaching for his arm. “Of course I trust you. You’ve been a tremendous help. I’d still be stuck wandering the Commonwealth and yelling at the sky if I hadn’t found you.”

“You did pull me out of a Vault,” he pointed out with a chuckle. “I owe you.”

“You repaid that debt when you helped me track down Kellogg,” Nora told him firmly. “You don’t owe me a damn thing.”

“Just…so long as you feel safe around me, Nora. The chance that I might be a danger to you...I’ve never been scared of my own head like this before. I’ve made a new friend here. The last thing I want is to lose you.”

She put her arms around the synth and he accepted the hug eagerly. He was warmer than she’d expected. She tried not to snuggle.

“General?” Preston called. “I heard you were back.”

Nora broke away from Nick and squeezed his hand, looking over at Preston with a smile.

“Hey Garvey,” she murmured.

“So, did you get what you need?” he asked. She sighed.

“Yes…and no. Come on. I’ll explain everything in a minute.” She gestured to the two of them to follow her, and walked up the path to her house. She could see several of them already inside waiting. The familiar forms of Curie and Codsworth floated around the table, where Piper, Cait and MacCready were sat. She opened her front door and headed in. Preston closed it behind him and Nick, and Nora took a deep breath, gazing down at her ring. Her eyes flicked back to the circle. Dogmeat curled up on the couch as she took her place at the head of the table, clenching her fists.

“All right.”

She paused, taking another breath.

“To summarise – Codsworth, Curie, Kellogg is dead. Everyone, Nick and Piper went with me to the Memory Den. We managed to get Kellogg’s brain to talk. Turns out he was hunting a rogue scientist. I…also have confirmation Shaun is alive. He’s…he’s ten years old.”

She swallowed. Preston put a comforting hand on her back.

“We also know how the Institute moves around. They use teleportation. One of them…he called it a relay.”

“Holy sh-hell,” MacCready breathed. Murmurs of surprise came from the group. Cait’s mouth was slack.

“This rogue scientist is called Dr Brian Virgil. He’s from the BioScience section of the Institute, whatever that means.” She pushed her fringe aside. “And he’s hiding in the Glowing Sea.”

“Oh my god,” Preston gasped.

“The Glowing Sea?” Cait barked. “You fuckin’ kidding me? That’s goddamn suicide.”

“A modified suit of power armour would be able to protect me,” Nora continued. “But I’m not going.”

“Why not?” Preston asked. She looked at Codsworth, then at Piper.

“Because…I’m about four months pregnant,” she announced.

“Oh my god,” Cait drawled.

“Codsworth knew from the beginning. Piper…found out accidentally,” Nora told them. “And I’m not going into the Glowing Sea four months pregnant.”

“No kiddin’,” MacCready breathed. “Jesus, Boss.”

“I didn’t tell anyone because I have no idea why the Institute wanted Shaun, and if they don’t know I’m pregnant they can’t take this baby. I won’t let them.” She swallowed. “I’m not backing out of the action yet. I still want to build up the Minutemen. Obviously, in a very short amount of time, I’ll be pretty useless, and I’d like to help while I can. Cait, MacCready, you two can stay here. I’ll pay you caps for the work you do. It’s not glamorous…but it’s constant, and you don’t have to say yes.”

“So long as I can still crack skulls,” the Irish woman announced.

“Yeah. I’ll ask Preston to help organise some patrols that’ll take you out to clear potential settlements if that’s enough. If not...well, there’s plenty to kill up this end of the Commonwealth.”

“Might as well stick around if the caps are constant,” MacCready agreed. “Fine. I’ll take that offer.”

“Thank god,” Nora breathed. “And…all of you. Thankyou. You’ve all helped me more than I can say. Feel free to stick around. Make Sanctuary your home.”

“Piper and I are probably more help in Diamond City,” Nick pointed out. “Mainly because I imagine I’ll need to keep persuading the guards to let Piper back in. But…you ever need our help, you just say the word, doll.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Nora sighed. “I have a feeling this shit’s only just started.”

 

* * *

 

 

MacCready had taken a house on the edge of town, with Cait as his next door neighbour. The sniper had climbed onto the roof, and was sitting there beneath a sheet of tarp with his gun over his lap, a cigarette between his lips. Piper and Nick had left not long ago to make the journey back to Diamond City. Preston was doing his rounds. Sturges had continued fixing up the walls, and even managed a single pane of glass. It was propped up against the workbench.

“Gift for you,” the mechanic said, wiping his hands clean. “For keeping our asses safe.”

“Are you serious?” she gasped. He shrugged, smiling at her. “No, come on. You need it more than I do.”

“No offense, General, but these walls are kinda white,” Sturges admitted. “I don’t…I ain’t comfortable thinkin’ I’m inside. I can’t…don’t know why.”

“Okay,” Nora said softly. “Just…don’t freeze to death, Sturges. And if you need anything, just ask.”

“I don’t plan on freezing. You want help gettin’ that thing placed?” he asked.

“Could use some help carrying it,” Nora told him.

The one pane of glass gave her a strange sensation of humanity as she admired it after she and Sturges had fitted it into her house. She’d have to scavenge for more glass after this. She tapped her fingernails against the window, as the sound of a Mr Handy came from behind her. She turned to see Curie.

“Madame, if you like, I am equipped with technology to allow me to run diagnostics,” the Ms Nanny offered. “Now that I am aware you are pregnant with a little one, I would like to offer this service when needed. While I am aware _Monsieur_ Codsworth is able to do this also, I merely wanted to make the offer, because…well… _madame_ , I would like a favour, if possible?”

“What’s wrong, Curie?” Nora asked gently, patting the Ms Nanny.

“I am not damaged or incapacitated in any way,” the robot assured her. “ _Non_ , I simply wished to speak to you. But I am not, how should I say, _okay_. I have spent much effort gathering information. And I have come to a grim conclusion, madame. I will never be a great scientist.”

“Oh, Curie,” Nora said softly. “What’s brought this on?”

“I lack inspiration,” Curie said with a sigh. “I do not have the human sensation of enthusiasm! Without this I cannot pursue my study fully! Madame, I wish to become human, or as close to human as I can.”

“Oh my god,” Nora murmured. “Curie…are you certain?”

“As much as I can be,” Curie replied firmly. “Will you assist me?”

Nora nodded. “I’ll give some thought as to who could help you, sweetie. I’ll help you find inspiration.”


	15. Chapter 15

“Hey, MacCready,” Nora called, climbing up to his little spot on the roof. “See anything we might need to worry about?”

The merc looked over at her, putting down his rifle. He reached for a bottle of Nuka Cola and took a swig. Nora waited patiently.

“Nah,” he finally said. “Nothing I can see, anyway.”

“Brilliant. So, tomorrow I’m going to Goodneighbour with Curie. I could use an extra gun. You can keep whatever you carry and I’ll pay you some caps at the end.”

He placed the Nuka on the table next to him and raised a brow. “Beats sitting here all day,” he decided. “Sure.”

“Thanks. I know guarding us isn’t the most glamorous work in the world but it gives me peace of mind.” She sighed. “I just don’t want to lose anyone else now that I can’t reach my son.”

“Hey now Boss, don’t start talking like that. You’re hardly the worst employer I ever had. I used to run with the Gunners, remember? I feel like you’d take a bullet for any of us.”

“Why’d you join the Gunners if you hated their style so much?” she asked, sitting down on the roof. MacCready swallowed, gazing out over the horizon. He picked the rifle up and slung it over his lap. She noticed his fingers tense on the grip. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

The two of them sat in silence for a while, admiring the glow coming from the deep southwest region. MacCready drummed his digits on the metal, looking nervous.

“I should go-”

“I’ve got a son,” he blurted out. “Little boy named Duncan. He’s about two years old. He lives back in the Capital Wasteland.”

“The where?” she asked.

“Capital Wasteland. I dunno what it was called Pre-War but it was meant to be where the capital city was or something.”

“Washington D.C?” she realised. “Ah.”

“But he’s sick, and bad,” MacCready added. “Just got ill out of nowhere. Covered in these weird blue boils.”

Nora reached out and squeezed his shoulder gently. The mercenary’s face reddened, and he looked away.

“I don’t know how much longer he’s going to last,” he mumbled. “He was too weak to come with me.”

“And there weren’t any doctors that could help?” she asked.

“I tried them all!” he snarled. “None of them had even heard of the disease. The only lead I got was from guy named Sinclair. Said his buddy got blue boils all over his body, just like Duncan. Happened after they went to some place called Med-Tek. They got the security codes from the place and Sinclair gave them to me. But I can’t go it alone. I tried once already. The place is full of ferals.”

“If we went to Med-Tek,” Nora began, “and found the cure, how would you get it back to your son?”

“There’s a woman in Goodneighour called Daisy. Runs a store. She’s got contacts with trading caravans who can get it to the Capital.”

“Then Curie can accompany us to the facility,” Nora decided. “Once we’re done there, we can head to Goodneighbour. You can talk to Daisy. I can talk to Doctor Amari.”

“You’d seriously stick your neck out for me like this?” the merc asked, his blue eyes widening.

“I know what it’s like to worry sick about your kid,” Nora said softly.

“Christ, yeah,” he agreed. “Hey, Boss…I owe you.”

“You don’t owe me shit, MacCready,” she chuckled. “Get some rest.” She stood, and started making her way down the ladder. “Hey, Mac?” she called when she was halfway down.

“Yeah, Boss?”

“What’s your first name?”

“Robert,” he said after a pause. “It’s…it’s Robert. Robert Joseph MacCready.”

“Thanks…Bobby.”

She heard the rifle clatter to the floor.

 

* * *

 

 

The three of them left Sanctuary the next morning, and made it to Malden by late afternoon. The front parking lot was filled with ghouls, and the small group found themselves fighting wave after wave of the creatures. A passing caravan stopped to lend a hand, and for a while nothing could be heard but ghoul roars and bullets spitting out of barrels. They were all covered in ghoul muck when the fighting finally ended, and Nora cringed at the smell. She tossed a few caps to the caravan guards for their help. MacCready shifted nervously by her side.

“It’s going to be okay,” she assured him.

“Sure as he- heck hope so,” he muttered. “Let’s just get inside.”

The doors slid open and let them in. The lobby was wide and spacious, with various doorways leading off into other parts of the building. She did a quick scan for ghouls, but apart from the two humans and the Miss Nanny, it seemed to be clear. She took a deep breath to calm her racing heartbeat, and wrinkled her nose.

“Med-Tek tried to get me to represent them once,” she said off-handedly as they moved forward.

“Represent?” the merc asked.

“Yeah. In court. In case of lawsuits.”

“Lawsuits being…”

“People deciding to sue them for every dime – cap – they owned. I almost took the case.”

“And why didn’t you?” MacCready asked. Nora smiled.

“Because I ended up taking a different one,” she replied. “Defending a member of the U.S army in court. It’s how I met my husband.”

“Wait, you defended your future husband in court?” MacCready asked. Nora shook her head as they headed to the back of the room.

“Not him. His friend,” she corrected, looking around. They were in a small room here, facing large glass windows that displayed a hallway decorated with decontamination arches, the biohazard sign hanging up on the end wall. At the end of the hallway sat a grey sliding door that was firmly shut. A terminal hung on the wall near them, and Nora walked over to it.

“This is an airlock,” she told them, pressing keys to find the menu. “Won’t open until the security alert is shut off.”

“Then let’s go find the executive terminal,” MacCready began.

The group headed through a narrow corridor on their right in time for a feral to fall through the floor above them.

“Oh, Christ,” Nora swore.

The floor above them was swarming with ghouls, and they were relentless, unafraid of jumping on the three of them. Curie was lucky – a ghoul got its legs around her and ended up howling in pain as her atomic thruster burnt its ankles clean off – but Nora and MacCready had to be careful not to get pinned beneath the sinewy, rotten bodies. Ghoul teeth were sharp and dangerous, after all.

Nora almost tripped and fell down a broken stairwell just as they finished off the last of the ghouls in that area, and they left the room, crossing a raised walkway towards another room. They could hear the sound of ghouls ahead of them, and Nora unpinned a grenade, tossing it into the room. A few seconds later, it exploded, and the wet sound of guts being strewn across the place met their ears.

“Oh, that’s foul,” the Vault dweller muttered.

“But excellently dispatched, madame,” Curie assured her politely. “Let us only hope that the executive terminal was not in the room, or was not damaged.”

“Oh, shit,” Nora cursed. “How could I have been so stupid?”

MacCready looked suddenly stricken, and they hurried into the room ahead to find themselves lucky. They had blown up the secretarial office, and the terminal ahead of them was still in one piece. Nora lowered her gun and approached the terminal.

“Here’s the password,” MacCready said, handing her a piece of paper. She unfolded it, reading the code from the parchment and inputting it. The two held their breath, loosing it in relief when the terminal beeped and revealed the executive options to them.

**CANCEL ALERT?**

Nora selected the option with the keys, and pressed enter. They heard the facility hum and whir as the protocols were deactivated, and they left the room, passing by all the ghoul corpses and making their way down the stairs to the airlock terminal. Nora got the door open, and they passed under the decontamination arches and into the next section. They immediately retreated from the turret fire, taking a few moments to breathe, before running back in, both of them firing at the suspended turret, moving quickly. As the turret exploded, they heard the frantic scrabbling of ferals on the other side of the security doors.

“Mac, throw some frags down,” she ordered, and he hurriedly moved from door to door, tossing down the mines and running. “We ready?”

“Oui Madame,” Curie confirmed.

“Do it,” the mercenary said, and Nora overrode the security measures and opened the doors. Burnt flesh smell filled the air as the ferals charged into the frag mines. MacCready and Curie hastily picked off the ones that were left. When the ghouls were down, Curie and Nora took a few moments to explore. This part of Med-Tek held a few science labs, and Nora tapped her lips thoughtfully.

“You know, Curie,” she began, “once you’re human, would you appreciate…I guess…a lab?”

“Like the one in Vault 81?” the Miss Nanny asked.

“Yeah,” Nora said, picking up a microscope.

“Oh, I would! The Commonwealth must regain its affinity for science if humanity is to move forward,” the robot gushed.

“And we could do with a medical bay,” Nora agreed. “I’ll make sure to mark this place down as a good source of junk to collect.”

“Oh, and lemme guess, I gotta carry it,” MacCready groused. Nora grinned.

“Damn right, Bobby.”

He dropped his gun again, blushing as he straightened up.

They made their way to the next level, flinching back from a huge metal construct in the middle of the room that made Nora’s Pip-Boy start clicking like crazy. This level was more labs, and there were plenty of ferals in here, and nobody said much as they dispatched them. To their relief, the elevator pad was flashing with power, and the Vault dweller pressed the button to call it. The doors slid open immediately, and they got inside, pressing for down. The elevator descended rapidly, and the doors slid open.

MacCready and Nora immediately retched at the smell, and Curie made a surprised noise.

“I am very lucky I do not possess a nose at this moment, if my sensors are reading the air correctly,” she said.

“Christ,” Nora gagged.

“Don’t think anyone’s been down here in a long while,” MacCready managed. “C’mon.”

They weathered the smell long enough to get to the next set of rooms.

“These people were experiments,” Nora realised, looking at the aggressive ghouls behind the glass. Curie had floated down the stairs, disappearing into a hall, and returned promptly.

“There is a way down,” she began, “but, unfortunately, it is blocked. Perhaps there is another way?”

“Hope so,” Nora muttered. “MacCready. Frags. Curie, with me.”

The mercenary tossed down all his remaining mines outside the containment rooms, and pulled his rifle off his shoulder, as Nora located the master terminal and hunched over it, clicking through the options.

“Ready?”

“Yeah, boss.”

“All right. Fingers on triggers, let’s take them out.”

**OPEN SECURITY DOORS?**

She pressed enter.

**ACCESSING MAGLOCKS.**

The sound of mines exploding rang throughout the room, and Nora paused. It sounded like they’d managed to wipe out all the ghouls at once, and she straightened up, her eyes falling on the door behind her. She gave the handle a quick test, and when it didn’t budge, she pulled out her bobby pins and dropped to her knees.

“I’m gonna see if there’s a way down,” MacCready called as she picked the lock. As he walked off, the door swung open, and Nora stood, picking through the ammunition crates and the med kits. A few moments later, she heard him calling, and she and Curie made their way down the stairs to one of the rooms. “Tada,” he began, pointing to a section of the floor that had fallen away. “Just watch your step.”

Nora clicked the light on her Pip-Boy and illuminated the murky tunnel, leading the way through the ruins to a large, open room. She filched the fusion core from the generator, tossing it into her backpack.

“Such a huge room, and almost nothing it in,” she commented, hearing her voice echo slightly. Scrabbling noises countered her, and in seconds, a ghoul appeared in the wide doorway, only to be quickly dispatched by the two humans.

“What the heck happened here?” MacCready muttered. “This place is trashed.”

“Don’t know. Let’s keep moving.”

They made their way into the next corridor, past a set of glass windows, and through a room full of trashed towers. Coming out onto a raised walkway, the three of them stopped, and Nora leaned over the railings to look at the shutter-covered windows of the room below them.

“Well, that kind of protection usually warrants something worth keeping safe,” she commented. “Hopefully…”

“Hopefully, it’s Duncan’s cure,” MacCready finished.

Nora barely had time to register the sound of a ghoul behind her before a heavy weight was shoving against her back, and she found herself falling, her arm wrenching painfully as she tightened her grip on the railing. Her back hit the wall behind her and she let out a cry of pain, MacCready already dispatching the ghoul that had knocked her as Curie finished off another. She looked down, and found to her relief that the floor wasn’t that far below her, and she let go of the railings, dropping down.

“Madame! Are you injured?” Curie called.

“A little bruising,” Nora replied, feeling her back with a wince. “But I’m okay!”

“I insist upon running a full scan!” the Miss Nanny began, and floated down the stairs to the Vault Dweller. There was a buzz of diagnostics. “Some minor damage to the derma of your back, but no bruises on any vital areas of your body, and the little one is undamaged. You are also lucky that the feral did not bite you. Ghoul teeth contain many dangerous bacteria.”

“Thanks, Curie,” Nora sighed, rolling her shoulders slightly.

“Boss! You okay?” MacCready asked, hurrying down the stairs.

“All good,” she assured him.

“Baby too?”

“You’re sappier than you let on,” she giggled, pressing a hand to her stomach. “Yeah, Baby’s fine. Ready to keep going?”

“You sure you’re okay? Wasn’t that far a fall but you couldn’t have hit that wall gently either,” MacCready said, his blue eyes wide with concern.

“I’m good,” she promised him. “Let’s go get Duncan’s cure.”

She flicked the switch to turn the light on her Pip-Boy again, and they walked around the inner room until they reached the grey security door. There was a terminal waiting for them, and Nora looked quickly over at MacCready and shot him a smile.

“Okay, there could be anything in here,” she began, as she clicked through the options. “Guns and buzzsaws out. Be ready.”

Curie took up a position in front of the door, and MacCready parked himself in a doorway behind them, his back to the elevator at the end. Nora pressed enter on the keyboard, and the facility began to beep and whirr as the shutters opened. She retreated behind Curie, away from MacCready to keep out of his sights, and drew her gun.

The glass windows behind the metal shutters were broken, and when the door slid open, they were ready for the two ghouls they’d already seen behind the shattered glass. Curie floated in as MacCready took down the first ghoul and sliced the buzzsaw through the other’s neck. It dropped heavily onto the floor, and Nora began moving forward. Green lights dappled the room, and she was almost to the lab counters when they started shifting. Glowing fingers gripped the edge of the counter, and something pulled itself to its feet.

A ghoul.

Radiation thrummed beneath its skin, its eyes burning into her, light pouring from the sockets. She pulled back hurriedly and switched to her assault rifle, blasting shots into it with shaking fingers as it growled. Sickly green swirled around its fingertips, and erupted through the room, forcing her back against the wall as the dead ghouls got up.

Cold fear erupted in her stomach as she emptied her gun into the glowing ghoul, retreating to give MacCready some space to snipe. The bullets of his .50 whizzed past her and into the glowing one’s head, and she concentrated on blowing the brains of the other two ghouls out with shaking fingers. Curie advanced, her buzzsaw cutting into its skull, and it died with a rasping gurgle as the reanimated ghouls dropped with it.

“Oh my god,” Nora whimpered, leaning heavily against the door frame. “Curie…”

“Madame, please take some Radaway,” the Ms Nanny instructed her gently. MacCready pulled up behind her, helping her to dose herself. Her hands were shaking too much. “Monsieur MacCready, please remain with her for a moment. Her heart rate is very high and she could potentially go into shock.”

“Jesus,” MacCready swore, putting down his rifle. He unbuttoned his duster and slung it around her shoulders, awkwardly grasping hold of her hand.

“I will attempt to regulate the heating in the room,” Curie said, and began to circle the space available, her atomic core gently raising the temperature as she did so.

“What the hell was that?” Nora sobbed, her eyes gazing down at the glowing ghoul lying on the floor.

“Ghoul hyped up on rads,” MacCready told her. “We call ‘em glowing ones. Not really inventive, but we don’t really give a shi- uh- we don’t care all that much about names when they’re trying to kill us.”

She gripped his hand a little tighter and swallowed, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand as she curled into the duster.

“I hated zombies when I was little,” she said quietly, fingers still shaking. “And when it brought them back to life…”

“It’s enough to make anyone sh- scared,” he agreed. “You uh…you need anything? Water?”

“I’m okay,” she murmured, getting to her feet. “Thanks, Bobby.”

She watched a blush steal across his face and he mumbled something like ‘you’re welcome’ as she handed him his coat back. He took it, sliding it around his body, and Nora finally made her way over to the counters. Curie floated gently to her side, her power source creating a warm bubble around her, and Nora leaned into her and sighed contentedly.

“All right,” she said, pushing aside papers and boxes. “Anything here that looks like a cure?”

They spent a few moments clearing junk from the tables, opening boxes and sorting through them. Nora pocketed as much of the tech and science gear as she could, and as she pulled a tube rack from the tables, a red auto injector syringe rolled across her field of vision. She grabbed it, holding it up.

“This…this looks legitimate,” she said. “Mac…what do you think?”

The words ‘Med-Tek Prevent’ were printed on the side as she turned it over.

“Is that it?” he asked.

“I hope so,” Nora said. “Curie, can you hold this? Or…”

“No, I want to,” MacCready said hurriedly, taking the cure from Nora with trembling fingers and placing it into his back satchel like it was the most fragile thing in the world. “Are we…should we…we should…”

“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” Nora told him gently, and squeezed his hand softly. He swallowed.

The three of them got into the elevator and the two humans leaned heavily against the walls of the little box as it ascended to the ground floor. They hurried quickly out of the building, and when the main doors slid open, both of them took a moment to breathe the fresh Commonwealth air in deeply.

“Let’s get to Goodneighbour,” the Vaultie began. Her Pip-Boy beeped suddenly, and she raised her wrist. “Distress signal?” she read off the display, and tuned her device to the frequency. Moments later, a slow beep filled the air, increasing in pace as she walked down the steps of Med-Tek and out of the parking lot. She headed west, and it slowed down, but when she moved east, it returned to its original pace, and they made their way a little further towards the southeast to confirm it.

“Can’t we head to Goodneighbour now?” Mac asked.

“We can loop back around,” she promised the mercenary. “The road along here heads into Boston.”

“Okay, boss,” Mac said, a little nervously, as they set off at a run.


	16. Chapter 16

It didn’t take long for the beeping to become frantic, and it soon became obvious where the source of the distress was coming from. Before them, at a curve in the road leading to what had once been a house, a few old cars and some skeletons lay on the concrete of the road. The house itself was completely ruined, a crater in the middle of the floor, and Nora saw a body propped up against an old desk on the opposite wall.

“This isn’t war damage,” Mac commented as they climbed over the old wall. Four suits of burned-out power armour lay strewn among the wreckage, some partially buried in dirt.

“They’re all fused solid,” Nora realised, as she stooped to examine the first.

“Hey, wait,” Mac began. “This one’s got the Brotherhood of Steel logo on its chest plate.”

“Brotherhood of Steel soldiers must be very careless in order to allow these suits to come to such ruin,” Curie said. Mac let out a slightly scornful laugh.

“Heck no, Curie. They value their suits like they’re made of gold. Whoever these guys were, they knew they weren’t coming back for them. Deserters?”

“No,” Nora said, her eyes lighting in understanding. “Paladin Danse said there were multiple teams of soldiers sent to the Commonwealth. Mac, I think we’re looking at the ones who didn’t make it back.”

She picked her way over to the fallen man and knelt by him. The source of the beeping was at his side – a distress pulser. She gently pressed its off switch, and picked it up. The beeping disappeared off her wrist.

“Help me roll him over,” she said to MacCready, and between the two of them, they managed to haul him onto his front. Nora opened his armour, and retrieved his body, searching him. “Holotags. Fusion cells. Rifle. A holotape?” She held the tags in her hand, scrutinising them. “What do these say? ‘Varham’? Wonder what those symbols mean. Rank? I have no idea…”

“What should we do with him?” MacCready asked, nudging the body with his toe. She straightened up, tucking the tags into her pouch.

“Do we have a shovel?”

 

* * *

 

 

They buried Varham and left his busted armour with the others. They could probably scrap the frames for parts another time, and Nora was keen to get to Goodneighbour to help her companions. On their way around the road they passed by a settlement called Country Crossing. It didn’t take long for Nora to have sweet-talked an arrangement out of them – they’d been having ghoul troubles, and the source was near their destination. MacCready watched her charming the settlers with interest. It was like the opposite of a protection racket, offering favours rather than asking payment, every word she said genuine and heartfelt, a soft pledge to stand by them in their troubles instead of a few sharp reminders of what she was owed.

They didn’t encounter much resistance between the city and Goodneighbour except for bugs and the super mutants that had camped outside it. Their worst enemy was the dying light as they tried to work their way across the Commonwealth, tripping over fallen parts of the city. They spent ten minutes helping MacCready get his foot out of a broken car, and had to hide from ferals. By the time they found the blue arrow that pointed to their destination they were all tired, and Nora found herself relaxing as they passed under the bright neon sign and into the Old State House area.

“That’s Daisy’s shop over there,” Mac began, leading the two of them over to the shop called _Daisy’s Discounts_. “Knock knock, Daisy!”

“MacCready,” the ghoul chuckled. “It’s been a while since you came to visit! Avoiding me, are you?”

“You know I could never stay away from anyone as pretty as you, Daisy,” the merc chuckled, approaching the counter.

“You’re a lousy liar,” the woman groused, and Nora’s ears pricked up suddenly. “So, what did you really come here for?”

“I did it, Daisy!” Mac told her excitedly. “I found Duncan’s cure!”

“That’s wonderful!” the ghoul gasped. “How’d you do it? Last time, the ferals almost chewed you to pieces.”

“I had some help from my new friend,” MacCready said. “Daisy-”

“Christ,” Daisy barked. “If it ain’t Roshanara Barker, 210 years later and looking fresh and lovely as ever.”

“I knew I recognised that voice! Daisy Bridmont, holy _shit_ ,” the Vaultie gasped.

“How the hell did you end up this side of the nukes with your face intact?” the other woman demanded, leaning over the counter.

“Vault-Tec,” Nora told her.

“Wait, you two knew each other?” MacCready asked.

“You’re damn right, sweetheart. Nora and I met in Boston Library when she was studying for her degree, back when those kinda things existed,” Daisy chuckled. “Come here, kiddo.”

Nora wrapped her arms around the ghoul and squeezed gently.

“You still smell of paper,” she chuckled softly, salt stinging her eyes as her vision blurred. “Oh, god! No, Daisy, we can chat later. Bobby, give her the cure before I get sidetracked, please!”

MacCready dug the injector out of his pocket and handed it to the ghoul. Daisy took it and wrapped it up securely, putting it in a box beneath the counter.

“I’ve got a trader who owes me a favour coming in later,” she told him. “I’ll get this on the first caravan going south. He’s gonna be okay, Mac. You kids…take care of each other.”

“Thanks Daisy,” MacCready said softly. Nora had a distinct feeling he was going to cry.

“We’re going to the Memory Den,” Nora told her, wiping her own eyes. “But after that, did you want to get a drink and catch up?”

“For my reading buddy?” Daisy chuckled. “Anything.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Well, hello again,” Irma chuckled as Nora approached her. “How’s Mr Valentine?”

“Nick’s doing good. Settled back into his office in Diamond City. Thanks for letting us borrow Amari, Irma,” Nora told her. “Because…I may need to borrow her again. Just quickly.”

“Well, we don’t have any clients coming in, so if you need her, she’ll be downstairs,” Irma said, draping herself exotically across her couch. Nora admired her easy grace and beauty.

“Thankyou,” the Vault dweller said with a smile. “Curie, let’s go.”

“I’m, uh…I’m gonna stay up here,” MacCready began, his eyes fixed on a cardboard cutout at the other end of the room. “You two have fun turning Curie from a toaster to a human.”

“You and your attitude stay up here,” Nora snorted, and headed for the stairs, Curie floating behind her. “Amari?”

“Down here!” a voice called, and Nora caught a hint of annoyance. “What is it?”

“It’s me,” Nora said, appearing at the door.

“You’re back! You couldn’t possibly have gotten through the Glowing Sea, surely!”

“Not in the slightest,” Nora told her. “Not…not with the baby on the way.”

“Ah, of course. That’s a smart move,” Amari praised. “So what did you need then?”

“I wish to download my data and core programming into a human brain,” the Miss Nanny told her. Amari gave Nora a blank look.

“You appear to be giving me a great deal of new avenues,” the woman sighed. “I’d ask if you were serious, but last time you handed me a piece of brain and then I melded your mind with Mr Valentine’s. So I imagine this is not a joke.”

“Not in the slightest,” Nora assured her. “Curie?”

“I was programmed to further the study of pathogens, diseases and viruses, but I cannot do so within the limitations of my programming as they are,” Curie said.

“A Pre-War robot with your knowledge, and human cognition,” Amari mused. “Yes…you could potentially save many lives. The memories wouldn’t be a problem – we translate those from the brain to computers and back all the time. It’s her personality that would cause issue. The extra pieces of robotic, programmed decision making? A normal human brain wouldn’t know what to do with them.”

“So what then?” Nora asked.

“A synth brain could possibly do it,” Amari announced. “Some have cybernetic enhancements that interface directly with the brain. It’s possible that the Institute created an interpreter for raw data.”

“So we need to find a synth?”

“I can provide that too,” Amari offered. “I…do work on synths, give them memory wipes to get them away from the Institute. The procedure isn’t always successful, I’m afraid. If it goes badly, it can leave the synth in a braindead state. Living, but…no cognition.”

“We used to call them vegetables,” Nora said softly. “Christ. The idea that synths could suffer the same…”

“It’s unpleasant,” Amari agreed. “We never dispose of them. They’re looked after as well as their caretaker can afford. I know one of the caretakers. If they’re willing, we could try transferring Curie’s consciousness into her.”

“Curie?” Nora asked softly. “What do you think?”

“We must try,” the Miss Nanny said firmly.

“Then I’ll contact the caretaker,” Amari decided. “Give me 24 hours.”

“Perfect,” Nora muttered. “Enough time for me to have a drink.”

“Please be careful around alcohol,” Amari said. “Less than two units, please.”

“It’s okay,” Nora assured her. “I already lost one baby and I couldn’t stop it. I’m not losing this one when I could have stopped it.”

“I will remain with the doctor,” Curie announced.

“Is that okay?” Nora asked. Amari nodded. “Thankyou, Amari.”

“Oh, I should be thanking you,” the other woman said, the corner of her mouth tilting up just a little. “This is an intriguing field of study.”

 

* * *

 

 

MacCready was listening to an old radio broadcast with a ghoul when Nora got back into the main room, and she called his name to alert him.

“Made a friend?” she chuckled.

“Kent,” MacCready replied. “Still a fan of the Silver Shroud. He’s Pre-War like you.”

“I should talk to him some time,” she decided.

“I mean he’s seriously weak and wouldn’t last five minutes outside,” MacCready continued. “The kinda guy who wouldn’t have pulled his weight back in Little Lamplight, I bet.”

“Little where now?” Nora asked, as Mac followed her out.

“Little Lamplight. It’s a bunch of caves. It’s where I grew up,” the merc replied. “Just me and a load of other kids. No adults.”

“Jesus Mac, no wonder you balk at authority figures,” she muttered. The mercenary laughed and Nora felt it in her core, a warm tingle of affection that made her fight down a blush.

“You kiddin’? I was the mayor for a little while,” he chuckled.

“That’s got to be a lie!” she protested as they crossed the space beneath the balcony. Ash drifted down behind them. They reached Daisy’s shop, and helped her secure her house, before the three of them headed down to the Third Rail.

Magnolia was sitting at the bar when they arrived, and Nora blushed at the memory of her last visit here, especially when the singer waved at her with a lascivious smirk.

“Well, somebody’s got an admirer,” Daisy said with a grin. “Wouldn’t be the first time, eh? What was the name of that bar?”

“Daisy!” Nora protested, her face flushing. “God!”

The ghoul cackled as they all ordered drinks. Nora picked a Nuka Cola and stole a little of Mac’s whiskey to mix in with it. The mercenary only protested a little. He got a great deal louder a few seconds later when his boss wetted a handkerchief and wiped a smudge of dirt off his nose.

“Can’t believe I didn’t see you last time you visited,” she began. “They mentioned something about a Vault dweller in a huge suit of power armour. No power armour this time?”

“I’m donating it to the Minutemen,” Nora replied, taking a sip.

“Minutemen, huh?” Daisy chuckled. “Well, you always were a bleeding heart.”

“Damn right,” Nora agreed. “I’m the General.”

“How’d you get that plum assignment?” Daisy asked, one brow raising.

“When I stumbled out of the Vault I made my way into Concord,” Nora told her. “You know I was living in Sanctuary Hills? They built Vault 111 just outside. Anyway, there were a few settlers hiding in the Museum of Freedom with one Minuteman left to protect them. Guess he was the only one of the militia alive. He asked me to be the General, and I said yes.”

“So your husband didn’t get the job then, huh?” Daisy snorted. She watched the Vault dweller’s eyes mist up. “Oh, god…oh Rosh, honey, don’t tell me...”

“Nate didn’t make it out,” Nora managed. “Someone broke into the Vault and stole our son, and they killed Nate when he wouldn’t let go of him.”

“How’d they get in?” Daisy gasped, grasping the woman’s hand.

“I don’t know! We were in cryostasis, miles underground, and…they froze me again, just like that, after I watched him die,” the woman choked out. She felt a hand on her other arm and looked up to see MacCready looking at her, blue eyes bright and concerned in the dim light. He drew back a second later, looking embarrassed.

“So…I imagine you’re after the bastards that did it,” Daisy said softly.

“It was the Institute, Daze,” Nora told her.

“ _Christ_.”

“Yeah.”

They lapsed into silence, the two women holding hands for a bit, before Daisy flicked her eyes down to Nora’s drink.

“So, you gave up on drinking?” she asked.

“Just for a little while,” Nora replied.

“Yeah? Want your head on straight?”

Nora leaned over and pressed her mouth close to Daisy’s ear. MacCready looked away to quickly scan the surrounding drifters for anyone listening in. He looked back in time to see Daisy’s eyes widen.

“Christ, Rosh,” Daisy breathed. “Okay, yeah.”

“Glad you see my point,” Nora sighed.

“Boss, we got company,” MacCready warned. “I mean…It’s good company, but…”

Nora looked up to see Hancock and the redhead she’d seen before approaching the table, Hancock’s gait languid and easy. He had a smirk in place, and his girl’s grin was sharp as a knife.

“Well, if it ain’t the bane of Finn,” he chuckled, his husky voice sliding down Nora’s spine. “Mind if we join in, Daisy?”

“It’s your bar, Mayor,” the ghoul woman told him. “Rosh?”

“Sure. Take a seat, Mayor,” Nora invited.

“Mighty kind of you,” the red-clad man said. “So…you sticking around, Vaultie?”

“I’m around for a couple more hours,” Nora replied. “Why do you ask?”

“Got curious about the woman who pulled Nick out the clink, babe,” he told her with a grin. Nora felt her ears burn and was suddenly glad of the dim lights. “I mean, especially once Mags mentioned you two had locked lips. Ain’t every day a woman like you blasts through Goodneighbour without leaving a scant trace for a guy to pick up.”

She took a long draught of her Nuka and whiskey, as MacCready gazed at her in surprise.

“Oh yeah,” Hancock chuckled. “Seems like you’re working for a real troublemaker, MacCready.”

“You kidding? This bleeding heart?” the mercenary laughed. Nora crossed her legs, her toes curling. No. God. One voice was bad enough. Two of them would kill her.

“So since I don’t feel like calling you Vaultie or ma’am all day, you got a name?” Hancock asked.

“Nora. Nora Pendleton,” she replied.

“As in, the flag-flying General of the Minutemen? That Pendleton?”

“That Pendleton,” she agreed. Hancock whistled.

“Nice. Good going. You guys did good work. I’m happy to see you up and running again,” he praised. Nora smiled, taking a drink. “So what do you think of our little constituency?”

“Well, Scollay Square has definitely changed,” she murmured.

“Changed?” Hancock asked.

“Oh, right,” MacCready added, “she’s Pre-War. They iced her up. She only thawed out a while ago.”

“Huh,” the ghoul rasped. “Explains…” Nora felt the prickle of his eyes roaming her body, “a lot.”

“Nora and I were friends before the War,” Daisy said. “Kinda jealous she got to the other side without losing her nose, but…well, lady wasn’t entirely unscathed. Be gentle, Mayor.”

“Gentle, eh? All right,” he laughed.

“I’m good. I’ve heard worse,” Nora assured her friend.

“Well, don’t let me scare you away,” Hancock began, finally picking up a glass and stealing some of Mac’s whiskey. The mercenary just rolled his eyes. “Matter of fact, our resident songbird told me you like a little music yourself.”

“How much did she tell you?” Nora asked carefully, her face flushing. Hancock grinned lewdly.

“Not nearly enough,” the ghoul growled. “Is it all right for the Mayor to ask for a performance?”

“So long as I keep my clothes on,” she babbled, and bit her lip. He threw his head back and laughed again.

“I like you! I’d rather you didn’t, doll, but it’s your call. Ain’t gonna prod you into making any, uh, _noise_ you don’t want coming out your mouth,” he assured her.

“Do I get to pick the song?” she asked.

“Sure. Go for it.” He leaned back against the sofa, his arms draping over the back, looking for all the world to see like some kind of king. Nora sat up, pulling the pins out of her bun and fluffing up her hair. Hancock grinned like he’d won a prize, watching her get to her feet and locate Magnolia, who grinned at her and nodded. The singer waltzed over to her mic, sensually grasping the stem before she leaned down.

“Good evening, Goodneighbour,” Magnolia purred. “We’ve got a little treat for you tonight. Thank our Mayor personally later, because he’s managed to persuade a little starlet to come up on stage, just this once.”

Daisy watched her friend pull a tube of lipstick out of her bra and expertly apply it, chuckling. She’d been to one of the bars Nora’s friends performed at. The woman had the voice for soft rock, a belter with a carnal undertone, and it had been a long time since she’d heard her sing.

“Would you please welcome Ms Pendleton, here for tonight only, singing…”

Nora leaned over and told her. Magnolia smirked.

“… _It’s a Man._ ”

Nora climbed onto the stage, Vault suit unzipped almost down to the top of her bra, exposing more skin than he’d ever seen on her. The red of her lips was alluringly dirty as she inhaled and exhaled softly. Her eyes flicked to Hancock’s, and the ghoul winked at her. She blushed, taking a deep breath.

 _“Girls! Girls!_  
Watch out! Watch out!  
  
There's a two legged animal running about  
If it smokes a great big cigar  
and it hangs around at a bar  
if it tells the biggest lies, wears the loudest ties  
it's a man!”

It was a change only Daisy had seen before. She danced at the mic, smirking, her hips swaying, gesturing to Hancock occasionally. It made the man grin every time she did, but Christ was she playful when she sung. She’d forgotten what it was like to see her do this. The song progressed, a few wolf whistles slinging their way across the bar, as she watched her old friend wind down and have fun for the first time in a very long while. Hancock’s gaze never left her, his drink completely untouched. MacCready’s jaw was slack, his blue eyes wide. Even Fahrenheit looked a little interested.

As the last verse rang out across the bar, the drifters, thugs and citizens let out a volley of whistles and cheers, clapping, some of them smirking as she stepped away from the mic and returned to her seat, surreptitiously zipping her suit back up to decent levels.

“Well,” Hancock finally managed, as she sat down. “That…that was worth a little cajoling, toots. Nice. Very, very nice.”

Nora flushed again. “I’m glad you think so,” she said softly. “It’s been a while.”

“For what it’s worth, it didn’t sound it,” he assured her. “Drop by, sing anytime…at the Third Rail too, if you want.”

“That’s…that’s quite the offer,” she stammered, her face still hot as she took another drink.

“It’s always on the table,” he said calmly, finally taking a drink. Nora was halfway through her next mouthful of Nuka and whiskey when he added, “and according to Mags, so were you.”

She spat out said mouthful.


	17. Chapter 17

Amari was as good as her word, and as Nora and MacCready descended the stairs the next afternoon, there was a tall, heavily built woman with silvery hair, fingers lit with a cigarette, standing by one of the memory loungers.

“So you’re the one who wants to put a robot brain in G5-19?” she asked, brows furrowing.

“I am,” Nora confirmed. “Have you met Curie?”

“Briefly. You’re lucky I even considered this.”

“Is G5-19 your friend’s…uh…name?” Nora inquired. The woman nodded, taking a drag of her cigarette.

“It’s her designation,” she corrected. “Why’d you want to put Curie inside her?”

“I…” It took a moment for Nora to consider why. Curie’s knowledge? Her skills? No, it was the lure of humanity. Curie wanted to be more than just a Miss Nanny. “Because Curie wants to live,” she finally said. “Your friend, G5...well, she escaped the Institute, so I guess she did too.”

The caretaker’s lip trembled slightly as she took her next drag, eyes averting just for a second.

“If you let me put Curie inside G5, I can promise you she’ll do amazing things,” Nora assured her softly. “I know it’s hard to lose a friend. But…Curie’s going to take care of her.”

The white-haired woman swallowed, and tossed away her cigarette.

“Fine,” she said. “Do it. Before I change my mind.”

“Thankyou,” Nora said softly. “I know you must care a hell of a lot about G5. This can’t have been easy.”

The woman chuckled humourlessly and took a deep breath as Amari started the program, and Curie whirred with delight. Nora leaned down to look at the woman in the pod. She was pretty, fair, with short dark hair and lovely eyes. For some reason, she was exactly what Nora would have pictured for Curie as a human.

“We’re ready,” Amari told her. “Curie, I want you to terminate all non-essential functions.”

“Affirmative.”

The caretaker was watching Curie intently, her brows furrowed.

“I have access to Curie’s memories,” Amari announced. “The connection is complete. G5 has already been prepped…so…this shouldn’t take…ah! There!”

Curie’s Ms Nanny body fell to the floor with a clatter, as the synth in the lounger took in a huge breath.

“I…my chest…what is happening?!” she cried, and Nora rushed over.

“Curie, breathe,” she insisted. “It’s a natural thing. Take in a deep breath. You need air.”

“I…I feel so strange!” she gasped, sitting up slowly. The lounger opened, and Nora reached for Curie’s hands, helping her slowly to her feet.

“What is your name?” Amari asked her gently.

“My…my designation is Contagions Vulnerability Robotics Infirmary Engineer. Or…Curie,” the woman managed, leaning on Nora.

“You’re okay, Curie?” Nora asked gently.

“Yes!” the synth said, surprised. “Oh, your voice sounds so different with functioning human ears!”

“Christ,” MacCready breathed. “I take back the toaster comment I made.”

“This is good,” Amari began. “Let’s run a few cognitive tests. What is 1+2?”

“Three,” Curie replied.

“If I threw a baseball at your head, what would you do?” the doctor asked.

“Uh, move.”

“Now, think of a strong memory. The first thing that comes to mind,” Amari urged. “Then, tell me about it.”

“Doctor Burrow was very old,” Curie recalled, finally standing, a little shakily, as Nora slid her arm away. “He was the last living scientist in my section of Vault 81. He was on his bed, very weak. He said to me ‘Curie, you must-’. And he died, before he could finish his sentence.” She took in a sharp breath. “Oh, my insides feel peculiar. What..what is that?”

“Grief,” Nora told her softly, “for a friend you lost.”

“This unit has no friends. But…there, that tightening in my chest, there it is again,” Curie began, her eyes widening. “Oh, this is so strange…”

“The operation appears successful,” Amari stated. “But…your friend will need time to adjust.”

“I can help with that,” Nora assured her.

“ _Merci_ , Doctor,” Curie said eagerly. “Thankyou for this opportunity.”

The white-haired woman behind Curie shifted, and looked away.

“I must thankyou also,” the former robot added. “You have been a great help.”

“Yeah,” she said softly. “Yeah, no…no problem.”

Nora wanted to reach out and squeeze her shoulder, but she settled for doing that to Curie instead, who looked at Nora in curiosity.

“What is that for? That gesture? The touch?” she asked.

“It’s meant for comfort, or reassurance,” Nora explained.

“I am quite fine,” Curie assured her. “Shall we return to Sanctuary, madame, or is there more work to be done?”

“Country Crossing still needs our help with their ghoul problem,” Nora told her. “And we should probably find some armour to put on top of your clothes.”

“Is my life going to be one big freakin’ walk from farm to farm?” MacCready asked.

“Don’t bitch, Bobby,” Nora said, with a small smile and a raised brow. “You’re getting paid, drudge work or not.”

The mercenary sighed. “You’ve got the caps, Boss,” he muttered. “Lead the way.”

“Hey, I’m more than happy to let you shoot all the Gunners and ghouls you want,” she chuckled. “I need your crack-shot skills, Mac. I mean it. You’re a valuable gun to have.”

“Thanks,” he said, looking sweetly confused.

Curie took a few steps forward.

“I fear walking may become tiring for this body,” she admitted. Nora pulled out a bottle of bourbon and placed it on Amari’s desk. The doctor’s eyes widened.

“You’re going to gain some serious leg muscle jaunting across the Commonwealth,” the Vault Dweller promised. “Trust me, Curie. In two weeks, you’ll be running distances you never thought possible, whilst whatever shit lives in the hills chases after you.”

 

* * *

 

 

It didn’t take long to clear out the ghoul infestation. There was some deliberation before they kicked down the door about what weapon to give Curie, and the two humans discussed it between themselves as Curie strapped herself into some spare armour, eventually handing her a sniper rifle. MacCready took all the hard shots, but Nora wanted to keep Curie out of any real firefights before she’d had a chance to practise. In the end, the ghoul den wasn’t huge, and bar a few bruises, their injuries were minimal.

They didn’t have much to give the settlers when they got back to County Crossing, but Nora made a few mental sketches as to what could be done, and as the afternoon sun moved overhead, they made their way to Sanctuary. They weren’t far from the old Drive-In when the radio on Nora’s hip crackled to life, and Preston’s voice filled the air.

_“General, do you copy?”_

She pulled the device off her body and raised it to her lips. “I copy, Garvey. What’s the call for?” she asked.

 _“We got a problem, General,”_ he began. _“Hurry.”_

“Curie,” Nora began, putting the radio back, “how keen are you to learn about running?”

“If Monsieur Garvey is in danger, then it is imperative that we make haste, no?” the woman replied. “I shall be fine.”

They started running. Nora felt a lump in her throat, constricting her breathing, heart beginning to pound. She hadn’t heard gunfire, but that could mean anything? Had he been kidnapped? Had someone been taken? Killed? Her mind raced with images of somebody dead on the road running through Sanctuary Hills, maybe Cait or Preston, or one of the settlers. Was it fire?

She swallowed the lump down, and inhaled deeply, clearing her mind of everything but the sound of their combined, laboured breaths, the smack of leather boots against the concrete. The early November wind stung her cheeks as they got into Concord, her throat burning for air, racing up the hill, hair whipping around her face. When they finally cleared the hill, and the Sanctuary bridge came into view and there was no fire or dead bodies, she slowed, catching her breath, half bent over as Curie and Mac fought to get air back into their lungs.

“Crash…course…in…haste,” she panted, feeling her pounding heartbeat. “Welcome to…being…human…Curie.”

“Is my…throat…meant to…burn?” the woman asked, gasping.

“Yes!” Mac whispered, his face red.

It took a full minute for the ache in her throat to fade, and Nora’s body was still thrumming with heat as they crossed the bridge.

“Garvey, where are you?” she called into the receiver.

 _“By the armour station,”_ Preston told her.

It took them long, harsh strides up the hill to get to the workbench section, and when they did, MacCready swore for the first time since Nora had met him.

“Holy shit, what are you two doing here?” he demanded.

“We warned you, MacCready,” Winlock snapped. “You’re taking jobs in the Commonwealth. That’s Gunner territory.”

Nora’s eyes flicked to Preston. The Minuteman was trembling. He looked like he was barely containing an insurmountable level of rage. Gunners. Right.

“Winlock, right?” Nora began.

“And you’re that broad from the Third Rail,” he replied. “What do you want?”

“For you to get off my settlement,” she told him calmly.

“ _Your_ settlement?” he repeated. “What are you, the mayor?”

“I’m the goddamn _General_ ,” she snarled.

“Wait…”

Winlock looked at Preston, as did Barnes.

“You mean this cowboy in dressup…you’re with the Minutemen?” Barnes barked. “This is Minutemen territory?”

“Yeah, genius,” Nora said softly. “This is Minuteman territory. MacCready’s working for us.”

“Are you serious?” Winlock laughed rudely. “Well, MacCready, you really fell from grace, didn’t you? Minuteman lackey.”

“It’s not so bad,” the mercenary told him with a smirk. “I could work for the Minutemen _and_ look like you.”

“Listen, lady,” Barnes began. “General, whatever you call yourself. We’re the biggest mercenary group in the Commonwealth. This is only your territory because we don’t want it, clear?”

“Oh right, because if you wanted it, I guess you’d cheat your way into it, like with Quincy,” she murmured. Barnes’ eyes flashed.

“Our guys nearly _wiped_ you at Quincy, bitch,” he snarled. “If not for this fucker and his buddies, there would _be_ no more Minutemen. And what’s a Vaultie know about the Commonwealth anyway?”

“A damn sight more than some idiot with a trigger finger,” she replied calmly. “Let me put it this way. You can leave, and not come back, or you can die. You’re outnumbered here. I count…one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine guns just in this short distance alone.”

“Are you threatening me?” Winlock barked. “You think if we disappear, you won’t have our boys knocking on your front door in less than a week?”

“True,” Nora conceded. “So you can leave this time.”

“This time?” Barnes cackled. “Bitch, I’ll walk all over your precious garden whenever I want. You don’t have the manpower to stop me.”

She smiled lazily at him. Barnes’ laughter died away. Silence fell.

Nora kept smiling.

“If I see you on my land again, Barnes, I will launch a goddamn missile down your fucking throat,” she told him pleasantly. “Now, both of you children can toddle back to whichever cesspool spat you out.”

“You fucking dare-”

Preston’s laser musket was off his back, and the normally jovial Minuteman’s eyes were steely and _murderous_. Winlock’s gaze darted around. Cait had appeared, a bat over her shoulder. Codsworth was spinning his buzzsaw. The Longs had both hands on their guns. Sturges was still at the weapon bench, but his pistol was in plain sight, right next to him.

“Barnes,” he muttered. “Shut up, asshole. This ain’t worth our time.”

The two men were glaring daggers as they moved away. Nora started following them.

“We’re leaving,” Winlock barked.

“Oh, I know,” Nora assured him. “I’m just making sure you do.”

They were gone a minute or two later, and Nora hurried back up to the group, shaking with adrenaline.

“Everyone okay?” she asked.

“We’re good. They didn’t hurt anyone or take anything,” Preston replied, his voice a little shaky.

“Thank god,” she breathed. “What should we do?”

“They ain’t goin’ away, General,” Sturges announced. “You could see it in their eyes.”

“Does that mean we have to get rid of them?” she asked. Preston’s eyes raised to hers. She could almost feel the untapped rage he must be feeling.

“Well, it would solve a lot of problems,” Mac pointed out. “Besides, if I know those two idiots, they’ll go back to their base and jerk off over how much they hate you whilst they plan your next move.”

“Any idea where that base is?” Nora inquired.

“Mass Pike Interchange,” MacCready told her. “You wanna follow ‘em and bash their heads in?”

“Give me some time, and I will,” Nora promised. “Preston, you want in when we do?”

“General, it would be my absolute pleasure,” he told her honestly.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning for mentions of animal abuse and Winlock and Barnes being a couple of disgusting tossers

“You got them?”

The Gunner laid out the plans across the table, unrolling the paper to examine the basic drawings that had been sketched on them.

“This is?” Winlock asked. “The best drawings we have?”

“You couldn’t find any pre-war docs with this kind of shit on?” Barnes demanded.

“No sir,” the private admitted. “Anything else, sir?”

“No,” Winlock muttered. “Dismissed.”

The Gunner saluted and turned, leaving the small metal hut. Barnes lit a cigarette as he gazed over the rudimentary pencil marks. There was an obvious, basic outline of a road, with houses either side, looping up at the end around a badly drawn picture of a tree.

“We really going after this place just for that chickenshit MacCready?” Barned growled. “We could’ve just sniped him.”

“It ain’t just about MacCready,” Winlock replied. “We made an example of those Minutemen at Quincy. Now we know Sanctuary’s flying their banner, we’re gonna do the same for them. Besides, that island’s surrounded by a water source with a good place to farm. We fortify it well enough, we’ve got another good defensive location. Besides, up here, we ain’t got to deal with the mutant shit they got down south. It’s quieter up here.”

“True. And there’s farms nearby,” Barnes added. He took a drag. “What do we do with the General?”

Winlock shrugged, pencilling in walls and fences, guard towers. “Whatever we want.” He paused. “Maybe we launch a fucking missile down her throat. She seemed keen on the idea.”

Barnes smirked.

“You think the dog’ll come to us if we starve it long enough?” Winlock added. “We could use another.”

“I wanna take the robot butler,” Barnes said. “Whatever happens, you think we should let MacCready watch his buddies die?”

“Sure. He shoulda kept out of our way. He didn’t. Now he’s paying for it.”

Someone began knocking hasty and hard on their door, and Winlock rounded the table, opening the door.

“Somethin’ wrong, private?” he barked. The man in front of him was pale, his eyes wide.

“Turrets are down,” he said. “Clay, Eames and Wicke aren’t at their posts. I can’t find them.”

“God, if they’ve disappeared for a smoke break,” Barnes snarled.

“Turrets are down?” Winlock repeated. “Non-functioning?”

“No sir, they’ve been destroyed,” the private told him. “I don’t know why.”

Barnes reached over and grabbed his gun. Winlock did the same and squinted into the darkness. Something small shone behind the walls.

Behind the wall, Nora Pendleton aimed her rifle and pulled the trigger.

 

* * *

 

 

“You know,” Piper commented, as she climbed into the power armour, “most people would consider _one_ set of these things to be more than enough. You have _two_.”

“Hey, Preston, you think the Minutemen need a Power Armour division?” Nora called to the Colonel. He gave her a laugh in response. “That’s either delight or mockery,” she murmured.

“It’s…it’s a crazy idea,” he said. “But…it would make defending our settlements much easier.”

“Armoured division it is,” the General announced. “All right, Cait, MacCready, I want you to loot these guys for everything they have. Preston, Piper, do a quick sweep of the perimeter and then pick up whatever you think is useful. Curie, see if you can find any chems or medical equipment. Dogmeat, Codsworth, follow me. I’m going to see what they were doing in their office.”

“She’s really settling into her role, huh,” Piper began. Preston smiled, scanning for any remaining Gunners as Cait and MacCready moved from body to body, stripping off guns and armour, pocketing caps. Codsworth hovered around the office whilst his mistress was inside. A second later, Winlock and Barnes’ bodies were tossed out of the door, and the click of a lighter echoed across the quiet high road.

“Wait, wait, what’re you burning there, boss?” MacCready asked, orange light spilling across his face. His employer dropped a flaming pile of paper to the ground near Barnes’ head and let it burn, searching the Gunners for loot with a face like thunder. She was muttering under her breath. Mac was close enough to realise she wasn’t speaking English.

“Uh, General?” Preston called. Her head whipped up to look at him. Her eyes were glowing in the fire and he swallowed, looking away. “Never mind.”

“Blue?” Piper murmured, approaching her. The woman got to her feet, inhaling heavily before she finally put a hand on her stomach.

“They had plans,” she began. “Basic architectural plans of Sanctuary.”

“So they were planning on attacking, like they did at Quincy,” Preston managed.

“Yep,” she breathed. “Take whatever we can carry. Doesn’t matter if we’re a little weighed down. Then we burn the bodies.”

“Ye think anyone’ll be dumb enough to come back here?” Cait asked, stuffing caps on her pocket. Nora picked up a jacket from a nearby box, and slid it around the woman’s pale, bare shoulders. Cait looked at her, surprised.

“There’s a place I saw near here that I think was called Sunshine Tidings,” Nora began, brushing her hands down. “If we use this power armour we can tear down these structures here and use the materials for building a settlement there.”

“There’s ghouls there,” Preston warned her.

“Not a problem.”

“I love it,” Piper chuckled. “Preston says ‘dangerous wildlife’, Blue’s response is ‘it’s not an issue.’”

“Hey, hey, so long as she’s not being reckless,” MacCready added. “The money’s steady here, I’m not ready to let my employer die.”

“Always the mercenary,” Nora sighed. “Let’s get going, people. We’ve got weapons to stockpile.”

“Wait, we’re not sellin’ any of these?” Cait drawled. Nora shook her head.

“Gunner stuff? This is top quality. These guns are military grade. Their combat gear is in top shape. Raider stuff gets sold. That’s basic crap.”

“You know your guns,” the mercenary praised. His employer laughed.

“Let’s just say my dad was a keen follower of the Second Amendment.”


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning for drug overdose

“I’ve never asked what you thought of ghouls,” Preston said, stirring his pork and beans around. Nora looked up from her place on the other side of the table, as MacCready’s brow raised on her left.

“Maybe, maybe because it’s a boring question?” the merc muttered. Nora nudged him with her elbow.

“Why’d you want to ask?” she began, taking a mouthful of food from her own can.

“Some of us think it’s a really _interesting_ question,” Piper pointed out. “I’d love to get a full interview of ‘Before the War: The Woman Out of Time’ when you’ve…you know…actually _got_ time.”

“You really want to know what I think about ferals and non-ferals?” Nora asked. “Why?”

“Curious, I guess,” the Minuteman admitted. “I mean, you ever wonder what would’ve happened to you if you hadn’t stayed in the Vault?”

“We would’ve been wiped out by the destructive force of the nuke,” she replied. “The blast of that thing smacked into the people above us like a tidal wave. If we’d been released earlier, I don’t know. I really don’t. You think I might’ve known some of the people who went feral?”

“I noticed that you had a previous relationship with the proprietor of Daisy’s Discounts,” Curie said. “I am also curious.”

“I might’ve done. I guess…I try not to think about it,” Nora said, putting her food down. “The idea…someone I care about, I shot…well…”

“I’m sorry,” Preston said softly. “I…it was a stupid question. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“I apologise also, madame,” Curie said, squeezing Nora’s shoulder. The Vaultie winced.

“Uh, Curie, maybe a little gentler?” she advised.

“Oh! Of course! This synthetic body has a stronger grip than a human one,” Curie realised. “ _Je suis desolee,_ madame.”

Piper pulled out her pen and pencil and scribbled something down, her eyes alighting on Curie and full of questions.

“No harm done,” Nora assured her. “Codsworth, does Cait know we’re all out here? I know this isn’t summer camp and she doesn’t need to eat with us, but…”

“I shall inform Ms Cait of the meal,” Codsworth announced. “Back in a jiffy!”

“That thing is _way_ too peppy,” MacCready told his boss. “I’m serious, is there a ‘reduce perkiness’ dial on him?”

“I like it,” Nora chuckled. “I’m sitting in the waste of my own civilisation, I’ll make my Mr Handy as happy as I can.”

“You ever think of putting him in a Gen-3, like we did for Curie?”

“I am not certain Monsieur Codsworth would know quite how to function in a human body,” Curie said.

“He’d miss the buzzsaw, and the flamethrower,” Nora decided.

“Ma’am!” Codsworth’s voice cried from outside. “Ma’am, you need to come here, and quickly!”

“Codsworth?” Nora called, getting up. The last time he’d said something like that, nukes had dropped five minutes later. She pushed open the door to the warehouse they’d been eating in.

“Hurry, ma’am!” the Mr Handy urged. “It’s Ms Cait!”

“Curie!” Nora barked. “With me!”

The three of them scrambled over to the hut they were sleeping in for the night, and Nora pushed the door open to see the brawler on the floor, a pool of blood surrounding her head. She collapsed at Cait’s side, rolling her onto her front.

The woman’s mouth was bleeding, her skin grey and clammy, and Nora slid an arm around her back, helping her sit up as more blood spilled from between her lips. MacCready swore as Piper and Preston arrived behind him.

“Cait!” Nora sobbed. “Oh my god, Cait! Curie, what’s wrong with her?”

“Stimpak,” Curie ordered. “Empty syringe, antiseptic, cloth.”

MacCready pulled Nora’s bag from her back and hurried to follow Curie’s orders. The items were pressed into her hands, along with a canister of water. The synth swabbed Cait’s arm and pressed in the needle. The woman groaned in response, but barely.

“Oh thank god she’s alive,” the General whimpered, swallowing. Curie extracted a blood sample, capping the syringe and cleaning the wound, jabbing a Stimpak into the brawler’s arm and pushing the plunger down.

“We should clean her mouth out. Madame, please hold her. Monsieur Garvey, close the door,” Curie said. “I must analyse the blood sample. Monsieur Codsworth, hold still.”

“What do you need, Ms Curie?” the unit asked.

“A gadget I requested that Sturges make for this situation,” Curie replied, pulling what looked like a tin can with wires attached out of her bag. “As I realise that I can no longer analyse liquids and such for myself, I created a non-invasive piece of technology I may attach to Codsworth in order to have access to such abilities.”

“What do you need from me?” MacCready asked softly.

“Stand guard,” the synth told him.

“Yes ma’am,” he muttered, and slipped outside, closing the door behind him.

Nora stroked hair out of Cait’s clammy face with shaking fingers as Curie’s device was filled with Cait’s blood sample. A few moments later, she gasped. The Vaultie’s head snapped up at the sound.

“What is it?” she asked. She could feel her throat quivering

“High doses of the chemical known as Psycho,” Curie murmured. “Addictol, do we have any?”

“Not again,” Nora hissed. “Oh my god, Psycho, again?!”

“Madame, please, you must remain calm,” the synth urged, as Piper found an inhaler of Addictol.

“Oh god,” the reporter breathed. “We knew she was taking…but, we though Jet, Daytripper, the easier stuff. Fuck…Psycho…”

“This information would’ve been nice to know!” Nora barked, curling an arm around Cait’s waist. She picked up the canister of water, unscrewing the top and leaning Cait down just enough to slosh some clean water into her mouth. Cait swallowed it instinctively. “If I’d known Cait was taking…”

“I’m sorry, Blue,” Piper said, kneeling down. “With all the excitement…it fell to the back.”

Nora took the Addictol and pressed it between Cait’s lips as Curie measured her pulse.

“Much more than 100 BPM,” Curie warned, as Nora pushed down on the top and released the medicine into the brawler’s system. A few moments passed. “It has dropped but only just. We require more.”

“That’s the only one I could find,” Piper apologised. “What else?”

“We have to lower her heart rate. The Stimpak’s medical qualities will heal her insides, but her heart rate must be slowed. Elevated BPM could cause a heart attack, and in Cait’s delicate state and this world’s lack of medical facilities there will be little to no chance of resuscitation.”

“Deep breathing may be able to slow her heart rate. Madame, we must remove her clothing. Piper, Preston, I will require you to look away.”

“We’ll join MacCready,” Piper said. “Call us if you need us Blue.”

The other two slipped out, as Codsworth hovered nervously, silent in fear. Curie and Nora hastened to undo Cait’s corset, unlacing her shoes and pulling off her trousers. The brawler wore little more than ragged scraps of white cloth around her hips and they were tugged away. The synth picked the woman up and laid her down on a nearby bed, measuring her pulse.

“It has worked, but once again only a little,” Curie warned. “We must ensure that she does not freeze to death.”

“Won’t the heat increase her heart rate?” Nora asked.

“Not if we are careful to regulate it at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, or a little lower,” Curie replied. “Here, madame. A cloth. Please, wipe the sweat off of her skin before it cools and induces hypothermia.”

Nora took the cloth and began cleaning the clammy wetness from Cait’s body, realising and marvelling at the heat rolling off Cait’s skin. When the gleam of sweat had been stripped away, Curie dug around in Nora’s bag for something. She pulled out a light jacket.

“We shall drape this over Ms Cait’s body,” Curie said, laying the green jacket over Cait. “Would you like to inform our companions that they may return?”

Nora got to her feet, feeling shaky, and stuck her head out of the door to call the three back inside.

“Codsworth, you okay?” she murmured.

“I’m terrified for Ms Cait!” the Mr Handy admitted. “I…ma’am…requesting permission to power down, unless I’m needed? All this stress is playing havoc with my servers…”

“Permission granted,” Nora said softly. “We’ll turn you back on if we need you, okay, honey?”

“Thankyou, ma’am,” the robot sobbed, and curled back into a ball.

“What do we do now?” Preston asked.

“We must wait,” Curie finally said. “Either Ms Cait’s heart rate will fall, or…”

“It will,” Piper said hurriedly. “It will fall. She’ll be fine. She’s the toughest person I ever met.”

“I will continue to tend to Ms Cait,” the synth added. “If you would all like to get some sleep, that would be best. Your human systems require greater levels of sleep than my own. I will wake you if I need you.”

They fidgeted, eyes flicking between the vacant spaces on the floor and the limp brawler on the bed. One by one they slowly unrolled their sleeping bags and climbed into them. Nora locked the door and covered the windows, leaving the bright pink light of her PipBoy glowing in the dark as she finally curled up onto a bed, watching the synth scientist tend to her charge.


	20. Chapter 20

“Wow,” a voice drawled the next morning, “the hell kind of party did I miss last night?”

Nora’s eyes snapped open and she sat up, gazing at the brawler in the green jacket. She felt tears sting her and swallowed.

“You’re okay,” she choked.

“Yeah, well, takes a lot to kill me,” Cait told her roughly.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Nora asked, reaching for her hand. The woman leaned away.

“Didn’t think…you needed to know, you know, just…because.”

“Cait, you almost died,” Nora murmured. “We have to cure you.”

“I tried that!” Cait snapped, swallowing. “I tried gettin’ cured. Doctors said they can’t do shit fer me, I’m too far gone.”

“There has to be something.”

“There’s s’pposed to be some kinda Vault,” Cait muttered. “Vault 95. I know you hate ‘em tho, didn’t think you’d go near one just for me.”

Nora succeeded in taking Cait’s hand, and grasped the woman’s shoulder. Dull green eyes met Nora’s, and she offered Cait a gentle smile.

“Cait,” she began gently, “I will literally walk through hell for all of you. Hell. Vault. Super mutant lair. Nest of bloodbugs. Whatever it is. If it’s going to help, I’ll do it. So if we have to go to Vault 95, then we’re going to Vault 95.” She looked around the room. “Who wants to come with?”

“Always good to see someone getting off the chems,” Preston said. “Me.”

“I’m coming too, standard fee,” Mac added. Piper rolled her eyes at him.

“You’ve got me, Blue.”

“And I also,” Curie told her.

“And me, ma’am!” Codsworth announced. Nora cupped Cait’s face.

“Well, there you go,” she chuckled. “We’re all going to Vault 95 with you, sweetie.”

“Yer a fuckin’ angel,” Cait croaked, tears tracking through the mud on her face. “I’m a goddamn waste of space, and you’re gonna die for me?”

“Yes. Now come on. Before the Psycho kills you,” Nora said. “Everyone, grab what supplies you can. We move out in an hour.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Gunners yesterday, Gunners, today, and heck, if it ain’t Gunners again tomorrow,” MacCready muttered, kicking aside the corpses lining the walkway of the Vault by the Clean Room.

“You okay, General?” Preston asked, as the woman typed the password into the terminal.

“Every time I go through a Vault, every time I read an Overseer’s terminal, I actually find myself glad that the bombs dropped,” Nora said calmly, as the computer beeped and the doors slid open. “So yeah, I’m fine.”

“Hey, hang in there,” Piper murmured. “Maybe Vaults were a sucky idea, but look at it this way. Without Vault 95, there wouldn’t be a way to cure Cait, right?”

“Small mercies,” Nora said, reaching her hand towards Cait. “You okay?”

“Feel like vomitin’ up my entire body,” Cait replied.

“Curie, she okay?” Nora asked.

“Her vitals are normal but she will require much rest and nutrition,” the woman informed her.

“All right, honey, let’s get you into the Clean Room,” Nora told the brawler softly, leading her through the door. “Everyone else, hold your position please.”

“Politest employer ever,” Mac commented as the doors closed.

“So,” the Vaultie said, wandering over to the door at the opposite end of the room. “Cait. You ready?”

“I dunno,” Cait admitted, swallowing. “The answer to me problems is sittin’ in there, but I don’t know if I wanna go through with it.”

“Cait, you could die if you don’t,” Nora reminded her. “I can’t watch that happen.”

“I…I want to get it over with but…what if the Psycho…what if without it, I’m not gonna hold together?” the brawler whispered. “I…what if it opens me eyes and…I have to…face all the reasons I was dullin’ the pain?”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Nora told her, and took both her hands. “Not ever. You’re part of the crew, you’re my friend, hired gun…fist…bat…whatever you are, you’re my friend too. If you have to look at the past again, I’ll be there to suffer it with you.”

“You…you’ve done so much for me,” Cait sobbed, her voice breaking, and Nora wrapped her arms around her. “You still wanna do more?”

“Until you don’t need to me,” the Vaultie assured her.

“Well, who the hell am I to look a gift horse in the mouth?” Cait laughed weakly, drawing back to wipe her tears away. “I’m…I’m gonna sit in the chair. You…flip the switch when you’re ready.”

She moved cautiously towards the door, pressing the pad and hearing it hiss open. Nora watched as she clenched her fists, a deep breath raising her shoulders briefly. There was a pause. Cait took a step forward, then another, and finally sat herself down in the chair, swallowing.

_Initiate Toxin Purge._

Cait let out a gasp of pain and Nora almost tripped over her feet as she hauled her ass into the Clean Room, kneeling by the pale, tense brawler strapped into the chair. The General placed a hand on her arm, gripping gently, swallowing down the lump in her throat.

“Cait, it’s going to be okay, you hear me? It’s gonna be fine. It’s hurting, I know, but you’re going to live after this. And it’s gonna be so much better…”

The room filled with her gentle whispers as Cait cried out, fingers clenching into fists, knuckles straining white against the bruised skin of her hand. Nora stifled the urge to cry, drawing tiny circles into the brawler’s arm and waiting, useless, for the woman’s whines and sobs to die down. The chair released her, and Cait fell gasping against the chair, skin pale and wet with sweat, dark circles around her eyes. She staggered to her feet and Nora jumped up to hold onto her, letting her slowly get her footing.

“How do you feel?” she murmured softly.

“Strange,” Cait breathed, pressing a hand to her forehead. “…Really…strange…Nothin’s how…I remember it. Sights…smells…colours…they’re all sharper. It…it actually worked. The cravin’s, the pain, even the rush…s’all gone.”

“Thank god,” Nora sighed.

“I…haven’t felt this good in a long time,” Cait finally said. “It’s…”

The brawler swallowed. Tears spilled over her lids and Nora gripped her tightly in a hug, sweaty skin forgotten as she stroked Cait’s hair comfortingly. Strong arms encircled her, and then Cait was hugging back, her body shaking with relief.

“It’s okay, Cait,” Nora murmured. “All right. You’re safe. You take all the time you need.”

She kissed the brawler’s forehead gently, and for a little while they stood together, just the two of them in the dingy old back room.

 

* * *

 

 

Evening sun fell across them as they left the vault, but there wasn’t much time to enjoy it. They could see the scrapyard not too far ahead, gunfire echoing across the hills, and MacCready peered through his scope to check out who was fighting the mutants.

“Wastelanders,” he said. “Not Gunners or Raiders.”

“Make it quick, people. We’ve got mutants to kill,” she called, and led the frantic race down the hill.

By the time they got near the fighting, the group of wastelanders had been dramatically reduced, a few of them huddling desperately behind some rocks with pipe rifles clenched in their hands, wincing as gunfire spewed stone out over their heads.

“Keep your heads down!” Nora yelled to them, lobbing a Molotov into the scrapyard and darting down to the assembled fighters, Dogmeat on her heels. “MacCready, Preston, get firing, Piper, Curie, take out the dogs! Cait, with me!”

“I ain’t bein’ cut out of action!” the brawler snarled.

“Don’t care, I’m your boss!”

Spitting out a few choice Irish curses, the woman scarpered over to the General, who was handing out bottles with cloth-stuffed necks and flicking her lighter. Dogmeat growled, and darted into the action with Piper.

“You, your aim any good?” she barked to a girl with wide brown eyes and a dirt-smeared face.

“Fuckin’ great,” she was assured.

“Wait for my signal.” Nora looked up. “Mac! How’s it going?”

“Need me covering fire!”

She looked back at the girl. “Up. Light. Throw. Duck.”

The lighter flicked and bathed Nora’s face in orange as the girl jumped to her feet, set the cloth blazing, and threw the incendiary into the mix.

“Blue! Could use some help!” Piper yelled.

“I’ll give you another signal,” Nora promised, and darted out from behind her cover to club a mutant hound in the face with her gun. “Now!”

Another Molotov sailed through the air, cracking a mutant in the nose. A moment later, Mac’s bullet found his skull, and a nearby car exploded, knocking two of the others down like skittles.

“Up and fire at will!” the General shouted, and the five survivors clambered up and began firing into the lumbering green bodies, a stray shot downing yet another mutant as Piper finished up with the hounds and switched to her combat rifle, spraying a nearby mutant’s hand with bullets and causing him to drop his minigun.

“Cait! Get in there!”

A blaze of red stormed past Nora and then Cait was in the fray, her bat swinging powerfully into the mutant and forcing him back.

“Duck, now!” Nora called, as another fell, his skull burning a hole with Preston’s musket fire. There were three left now, and Cait was already battering one of them into submission, cracking his knees, and as he fell, breaking his neck. Two left, and the snipers took him on together as Nora lit one more bomb and tossed it at the last opponent. And suddenly he was being fired on at five different angles, Cait switching to shotgun and pulling back, and moments later he dropped with a scream.

“Clear!” Preston yelled. “How’re the survivors?”

Nora turned, and made her way back to the five huddled behind the rock, crouching down by them, the German Shepherd padding over to her.

“I’m sorry we didn’t get here in time to save the others,” she apologised. “Any of you need a stimpak?”

“I do,” and the aid was handed over, a grunt as they jabbed it into their arm. Nora turned her gaze to the brunette.

“What happened?”

“We’re from Somerville,” she replied.

“Somerville…”

“The settlement? Somerville Place,” the girl informed her. “We were on our way to Sanctuary.”

Nora’s head tilted. “Why’s that?”

“Wanted to see if the Minutemen would help us,” the girl admitted. “With mutant trouble.”

“Well,” the Vaultie chuckled, “they just did.”

The girl’s eyes widened. “You’re…oh my god, you’re General Pendleton, right?”

“That’s me,” Nora agreed. “And you?”

“I’m…I’m Maria. Mathers,” she stuttered. “Oh my god. You’re like…famous, you know?”

“Nice to meet you, Maria,” Nora began, holding a hand out. Maria gripped it, and the Vaultie helped her to her feet. “I’m Nora. This’s Cait, Curie, Robert MacCready, Preston Garvey, the Mr Handy’s called Codsworth, and that’s and Piper Wright. Oh, and Dogmeat.”

“Salut,” Curie piped. Dogmeat barked.

“You need any help getting back to Somerville?” the General asked.

“No, no, we’re okay,” Maria promised.

“All right. And, hey, if you guys find any suits of power armour lying around whilst scavenging, radio me. I’m putting together a mounted division for the Minutemen,” Nora told her.

“Yes ma’am!”

“We’re going back to Sanctuary. You ever need us, radio us. I’ll be checking in soon to see about putting up better defences and clearing the area around your settlement.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

It took them several days to get back to Sanctuary, and Nora let out a huge sigh as she finally got through the door, tossed her rifle and armour onto the couch and sat down heavily on the old, worn furniture. Codsworth floated over.

“That was quite the journey, mum,” he began, chuckling. “Just think, another part of the Commonwealth is going to be safer, thanks to us!”

“Yeah, and I need a nap,” she groaned.

“What, today, mum?” he gasped. Nora looked up at him, one brow raised.

“Surely you’ve not forgotten!”

“What have I forgotten? Codsworth, what day is it?”

“Why…it’s Master Nate’s birthday, mum,” he admitted. Nora swallowed, and looked at her PipBoy. November 22nd. Once month since she’d left the cryo.

“So it is,” she murmured. “How could I have forgotten?”

“Well, to be _fair_ , mum, you _have_ been rather busy!”

She laughed softly. “Mmm, I have.”

She leaned back against the couch.

“Well, what should we do?” she asked. “For his birthday?”

“I could make dinner for you, mum!” Codsworth suggested.

“All right,” she agreed. “Just the two of us?”

“We could invite all your friends, if you’d like?” the Mr Handy asked. “We’ve got lots of meat ready to be cooked, I could make some excellent radroach steaks with tatos!”

“Both ideas sound lovely,” she admitted. “Don’t know if I’ve got the energy for…well…everyone.”

“Well…I suppose…it _is_ midnight,” Codsworth agreed. “You’ve still got near enough 24 hours before his birthday’s over! Why don’t you sleep, mum, and celebrate properly later?”

“Don’t let me curl up on the couch,” she laughed, getting to her feet and wandering into the bedroom. Approaching the dresser, she opened the drawers, and searched through the remains of the clothes. Something glinted in the moonlight. Nate’s dog tags, atop his pressed white t shirt, still protected from the elements after all these years. She drew the makeshift curtains and pulled off her Vault suit, tossing it onto a chair and taking off her underwear. She slid the tags around her neck, and worked the t-shirt over her head, the white fabric swishing around her thighs like some shapeless dress. It didn’t smell of him, not anymore, but Nora felt an odd sensation of peace and comfort as she lay down on the bed and pulled the covers around her.

“Happy birthday, sweetheart,” she murmured. Tears stung her eyes. Her body shook with sobs, and Dogmeat came padding into the bedroom with a sad whine. Without further ado he jumped onto the bed, and curled up by his mistress.


	21. Chapter 21

It was cold the next morning, but as Nora sat up, the bedroom door opened, and Codsworth floated in, holding a mug of steaming coffee in one pincer.

“Morning, mum,” he said cheerfully. “I’ve taken the liberty of making you breakfast. That nice Mr Sturges has been trying to fix up some sort of heating system this morning. He’s up rather early.”

“Oh, morning,” she replied, taking the coffee and clapping her hand over her mouth, just about covering a huge yawn.

“Is that Master Nate’s t-shirt?” Codsworth inquired.

“Yeah, I found it in the drawer,” she mumbled, taking a sip. The warmth spread down her throat.

“I always found it on the floor,” the Mr Handy commented, with something like a sniff. “Breakfast is ready, mum.”

On the floor? Why would it be-

 _Oh_.

 _Yes_ , Nora mused, _he did tend to pull it off and throw it when he wanted to get naked._

There was an answering burn of heat between her thighs and she noisily slurped at the coffee to try and distract herself as Codsworth left her to dress in peace. She slid out of bed and reached for her Vault suit, working herself into it. Her belly was starting to grow, and soon she wouldn’t fit the blue fabric anymore, so she left it hanging around her waist and slid her arms out of Nate’s shirt, finding her bra. Once that was on she put Nate’s shirt back on and found a jacket to wear. The suit wasn’t staying on without a belt, and she located one, the cobalt arms trailing down at her waist as she wandered into the kitchen.

“Breakfast!” Codsworth told her, and pointed his blowtorch at a plate of still-steaming cooked radroach. She placed the coffee down on the counter and hopped up onto the stool, picking up a fork. There was a knock on the front door as she stabbed a piece of roach and put it in her mouth. She gracelessly made a noise that sounded vaguely like ‘come in’, and Preston entered.

“Morning General,” he began. “Wanted to know if you had a plan for today.”

“We got anything pressing?” she asked, once her mouth was empty.

“Nothin’ I know of,” Preston replied. “Well…I mean; you’ve got a visitor.”

Nora’s brow raised.

“A visitor?” she repeated. “Okay. They hanging around?”

“Sure. You want me to call him in?”

“Yeah, hold on.”

Nora wiped her mouth clean, as Preston stepped out the house. A few moments later, he returned with a ghoul in a mechanic jumpsuit, a leather jacket covering the green fabric. She hopped down off the stool and greeted him with a smile.

“Hi. You wanted to see me?” she asked. “You from a local settlement?”

“It’s been a while, kid.”

Nora’s eyes widened, and she looked up into a pair of very familiar cerulean eyes as a lump gathered in her throat.

“…Dad?”

“Hey, Rosh.”

Salt stung her eyes, and she jumped forward towards her father. The ghoul wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tightly. Nora buried her face in his jumpsuit and inhaled the smell of machine oil and listened to his heart as tears spilled down her cheeks, weak sobs leaving her. The rough, mottled fingers slid around the back of her head and held her close.

She heard the door close as Preston left again, and a moment later she drew back, wiping her eyes.

“But, I don’t…how did you…you were in _Florida_ ,” Nora managed. “And…what happened to…Mom?”

The ghoul squeezed her arms gently.

“She didn’t make it.”

They took a seat on the couch, and he slid his arms around her again, holding her close.

“When the bombs hit, your mom was…outside. We were pretty far from any of the bigger blasts, but the wind…just picked her up and…she hit a wall pretty hard.”

She squeezed her dad’s hand.

“I was in the workshop with the shutter down. It completely caved the metal in, but I was fine. Went outside to see what had happened, and…just found her lying there.”

“What happened then?” she asked.

“Well…I tried to call you. Several times. You didn’t answer. All I got was static after the third try. So I took a shovel…I tried to resuscitate your mom, even got one of our neighbours, you remember Dr. Wells? When it became clear she…wasn’t coming back…I buried her in our back garden.”

“And…then?”

“I knew I had to come find you. See if you and the boys were okay. So I packed some of my stuff and started walking. Made it two miles before the radiation hit. One of the local power stations had been destroyed. It was like being stung with acid.”

“You don’t have to tell me,” she assured him. “But you got hit with the rads?”

“I had some Rad-X and Radaway,” he added. “I took it. Didn’t take me too long to run out. Took almost two months to reach Massachusetts. By the time I did the Glowing Sea was nicely established and I had to take a twenty-mile berth around it. I was pretty much a ghoul by that time. Managed to find a group of survivors and we hid down in the turnpike for a bit. After a while I decided to make my way up here. Sanctuary was pretty much empty. There were a few ghouls who’d survived the blast. One of them told me you’d all gone to Vault 111.”

He squeezed her arm.

“I pretty much gave up hope after that. I mean…I knew you were in a Vault, maybe you’d be safe…sort of drifted, really. Lived in Goodneighbour for a bit, but after a while I got tired of the Marowskis running the place. The last few years or so, I’ve been at the Slog. It was only when a caravan came through talking about a woman running the Minutemen with your name…I remember my heart actually stopped the first time I heard the words ‘General Pendleton.’ So I told Wiseman I needed to leave immediately and he let me.”

“Wiseman?”

“He runs the Slog. He’s, uh, interested in getting under the banner, if that helps.”

“And the Marowskis?”

“They don’t…they’re not like, the Mayors. That’s Hancock’s job. But they peddle all the chems, so anyone who wants a fix has to go through Marowski.”

There was a long pause. She heard her father swallow.

“…So, what happened to you?” he finally asked her.

“Vault 111 was a cryo facility,” she replied. “Nate…didn’t make it out. While we were in the pods…someone broke in. They shot Nate and took Shaun. And…my search to find him…it’s reached the furthest point I can go.”

“Jesus, kid,” her father whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s…I could…keep going but…not right now,” she managed. “It’s…just…well…I was pregnant when they put me in cryo and…the kid’s survived.”

His eyes widened.

“Wait…you’re having a baby?”

“Yep.”

“And it’s Nate’s birthday today,” she added. “So…”

“Yeah, I remembered. Couldn’t…really think of anything to get him.”

He stroked the top of her head gently.

“Anything I can do to help you get my grandson back?” he asked.

“I have to go to the Glowing Sea,” she told him. “But I don’t want to. Not whilst I’m pregnant.”

“So, you know the gender yet?”

“So long as it survives, I don’t mind.”

 

* * *

 

 

There were now 3 mechanics on one settlement, and MacCready took a break from watching the perimeter long enough to find them in Sturges’ workshop, swapping spanners, covered in grease, halfway through trying to build a functioning heater. There was a smile on the General’s face he had never seen before as she worked with her father, and when, finally, they were finished, they revealed an old fan wired up to a rudimentary circuit and a fusion core.

“We’re gonna need something more renewable in terms of energy if we plan on making more,” the ghoul began, “but, turn it on.”

Nora flicked the on switch, and a burst of warm air came out of the device. She let out a contented sigh.

“I swear to god you’re a wizard,” the merc began, looking at his employer, who replied with a smug grin.

“Okay, so now we make one for each of the houses, on a large scale,” she suggested.

“Done.”

“Sturges, how many more panes of glass do you need to fix these windows?”

The man gave her a slightly bemused laugh.

“I ain’t gone and counted ‘em, General. Unless you wanna?”

Nora looked at her father. “Gimme five minutes, okay?”

The ghoul watched her go with an expression of surprise.

“She always like that?” MacCready asked, as he brushed a speck of dust off his arm.

“More so when she was a kid,” he replied. “So, who’re you?”

“Robert Joseph MacCready, but everyone ‘round here just calls me Mac. You?”

“Theodore Barker,” the ghoul said, turning the fan off. “Just Theo, though. My wife used to call me Ted. Didn’t wanna tell her I prefer the former. Who else have we got around here?”

“Well, you met Preston already.”

“Oh, yeah. Nice guy. Think I heard his name mentioned a couple times in various places.”

“The redhead over there,” RJ pointed to Cait, who was shadow-boxing, “that’s Cait. She’s our resident heavy. Dark-haired lady in the red coat, she’s not here often, but that’s Piper.”

“Think she came through Goodneighbour before,” Theo recalled.

“She’s an investigative journalist, which is the fancy name for poking her nose into shi- stuff that gets her into danger. Sometimes Nick Valentine helps out too.”

Then the merc gestured to the German Shepherd in the doghouse.

“And that’s Dogmeat.”

“Where’d she _find_ you all?” Theo asked.

“Red Rocket for Dogmeat,” MacCready said. “She saved Preston and some of these guys in Concord, right, Sturges?”

“Blew through in a Vault suit looking completely lost,” Sturges agreed, “Took on a Deathclaw.”

“Wait, what?!”

“She put on this set of T-45,” the mechanic said, patting the blue-painted armour sitting in the bay. “Pulled a minigun off a crashed ‘bird and took it down.”

“My baby killed a Deathclaw,” Theo breathed.

“Anyway, I got hired down in the Third Rail, and Cait was helped out of the Combat Zone. Piper got locked out of Diamond City for pissing off McDonough and she used Nora to get herself back in.”

There was a short pause.

“And the pretty, dark-haired lady with the goggles just walking past? That’s Curie. She’s…she’s a synth.”

Theo’s mouth dropped open.

“Don’t let anyone hear you say that outside this place, kid,” he warned.

“You think I’m that stupid?” Mac countered.

“Just being cautious.”

“110!” Nora announced, marching back.

“Holy shit, kid, did you seriously go ‘round and count them all?” Theo asked.

“Hey, this is important,” she pointed out. “We need to know how much glass to order in or scavenge.”

“That’s true.”

“Anyway, Sturges, 110. If you ever need my help, just ask.”

“Yes ma’am,” the man replied, saluting.

“So…November 22nd,” Theo began. “What’re your plans?”

“Thought we’d do dinner with these guys,” Nora began. “I could talk about my husband to anyone who wants to listen.”

“That usually takes a lot of planning,” the ghoul pointed out.

“I’ll see what we’ve got in the storage,” she decided. “Otherwise, we could do a mix of things and then have a drink. Not me, obviously.”

“You need any help?” he asked. She took his hand, and squeezed it.

“Always, Dad.”

 

* * *

 

 

Between Codsworth, Nora and her father, they managed to make dinner for 11, and she packed the population of Sanctuary Hills into her dining room. There had been a few suggestions regarding dinner – Brahmin had been mentioned and Nora had started contemplating making herself a separate meal, before Preston had gone out for an hour and returned with enough radstag to feed the group.

Nora found something warm but sort of nice to wear, and recovered a tube of dark, plum-covered lipstick from her dresser. After a moment’s pause, she unpinned her hair. It fell around her shoulders and wisped against her neck. After a moment, some of it warmed a little with the contact against her skin, and she wandered back out of her bedroom to see the group gathered together, talking. There was a lull in conversation as they spotted her, and she gave them a slightly nervous smile.

“So, I wanted to do something nice for everyone,” she began. “Because, today would have been my husband’s birthday. So since he’s…not here…I wanted to celebrate it in memory of him. Thank you for coming on such short notice. There’s uh, a few announcements I want to make. For…well…anyone I hadn’t told yet…I’m pregnant, about 4 months or so, which means I can’t carry on looking for my son since I’d have to head into a place filled with radiation. So, I’m gonna be sticking around until I have my baby, kind of, you know, heading up the Minutemen and stuff. I wanted to thank everyone, particularly my adventuring buddies, for helping me out, and to the guys who stay here and help me fix this place up, you’re making a huge difference. So, that was all, and please enjoy this meal.”

“I wasn’t expecting the speech,” Theo began, handing her a plate of grilled radstag.

“It just slipped out,” she confessed, sitting up at the bar.

“It…it was nice, and it also made me sad,” he admitted. “Jesus, kid, you’ve suffered some shit.”

“I guess I have,” she agreed.

“So Blue,” Piper began, “how’d you even meet your man?”

“Back in…gosh, 2072…I was a lawyer. There was an army official who came to me and offered to pay…wow, a lot of money for this one case. He wanted me to defend a soldier in court, guy named Lieutenant Matthew Blanchard. Blanchard had been accused of…well, a lot. Murder, arson, theft and grievous bodily harm. The guy who hired me said he was completely certain the lieutenant had been framed by someone else.”

“That’s a lot of crimes to prove someone innocent of,” RJ whistled, and chewed on a mouthful of radstag.

“Oh yeah. We cross-examined all the witnesses and their accounts and there were a few details that didn’t add up. When we found a few witnesses of our own and added Blanchard’s testimony, it became pretty clear that another army higher-up had thrown Blanchard into the fire to cover his own ass. I’m pretty sure that officer was never seen again.”

“So what’s this guy got to do with you meeting your husband?” Cait asked.

“Blanchard had a couple friends who used to turn up during the case. One of them gave evidence, the other two were…moral support I guess. After I cleared him of charges they asked if they could take me out to dinner to celebrate. I said yeah, sure. I mean, a free meal? I wasn’t exactly going to turn that down,” she chuckled.

“Wise decision,” Preston agreed.

“Anyway, there ended up being six of us. Blanchard – Mattie, after that – was there with his wife Annette, and then there was another couple, who’d turned up as the moral support. Roger Maxson, and his wife Madelyn. And then there was…well. Nate. He’d given evidence during the trial.”

“I have questions,” MacCready began. Piper hushed him.

“To this day, I’m pretty sure Roger invited Nate along in an attempt to play matchmaker,” Nora said with a fond sigh. “Anyway, it was a really nice evening, and at the end of it, as I was saying goodbye, Roger asked if I needed to be walked home, you know, just in case, because, well, Nate was totally available to help get me back safely if that was the case.”

“And you accepted the offer?” Sturges asked from his space on the couch.

“Well…Nate…he…he was 6’3,” she managed. “Very good-looking. Built like a soldier. Intense eyes, confident posture…”

“6’3,” Piper muttered. “Jesus. Most people don’t get much taller than 5’10.”

Nora curled her hair around her finger.

“He was…very quiet, walking me home. He wasn’t silent but…he said later that he didn’t want to say anything dumb or intimidating because I looked kind of nervous. Anyway, he walked me to my door, and…just kind of nodded. Said good night, wished me a pleasant evening.”

“And that was it?” Cait asked. “He didn’t even kiss ya?”

“He barely knew me,” Nora pointed out, cheeks flushing, “but…I mean…I do…wish he had.”

“On the first meeting,” Theo muttered, shaking his head.

“Mom met you in your workshop and you told me you were kissing three hours later!” Nora protested, looking over at her dad. The ghoul chuckled.

“I’m teasing, kid.”

“Anyway, turns out I forgot my jacket,” she continued. “So he turned up two days later to hand it back.”

“Oh shit yes,” Cait cackled. “What happened then?”

“Nothing!” Nora gasped. “Cait!”

The General’s face almost matched her lipstick.

“I’m listening intently,” Theo assured her.

“Dad!”

“Kidding. I’m thinking of plugging my ears, honestly.”

“He just handed my jacket back, and then kind of…casually asked me if I ever wanted to get coffee because…I mean, he lived with the Maxsons, and they weren’t too far away,” she said.

“You keep saying that name like you don’t know what it means,” MacCready muttered. Piper shushed him.

“So, we started going on dates,” Nora added. “Eventually we made it an official thing. About a year later we got married.”

“You must have really gotten along with him,” Piper decided.

“It was…all pretty great, to be honest,” Nora agreed. “Good listener, great friend. Very protective.”

“He sounds like he was a great guy.”

“He was the best,” Theo agreed, as Nora took the chance to eat. “He was exceptionally nice to his mother in law, particularly since she wasn’t pleasant to him.”

“She wasn’t?”

“Maya? She couldn’t stand him. ‘He looks wrong for her, Ted,’ she told me once. She didn’t have to explain what she meant. I knew it.” He took a long drink of wine. “I loved my wife, but she wasn’t always kind.”

“Were Nate’s parents alive when the bombs dropped?” Piper asked. “Maybe they’re ghouls too.”

Theo looked away. “I went to check on them,” he admitted. “They were up in Malden. They…there was a lot of debris, including their house.”

“Oh.” 

“Well, there are still three Pendletons standing even after shit’s hit the fan,” Nora announced. “Shaun, me, and this baby.”

“I think that’d make him happy,” Theo said.

“Me too, Dad,” Nora agreed.

 

* * *

 

 

As everyone returned to their respective houses, the night drawn to a close, Nora wrapped her arms around her belly and took a seat on the couch. Codsworth hummed, doing dishes in the background.

“Had a good evening, kid?” her dad asked, sitting down beside her.

“Yeah,” she murmured. “It’s been nice to hang out and talk to friends. Especially talking about Nate. Kind of…makes it easier.”

“I get that,” Theo agreed, putting an arm around her. “So, maternity leave now?”

“Of a sort. I’ll still help out, I just can’t do that same running around and heavy action that I could before.”

“Smart choice.”

They sat in silence for a while.

“Thank you for coming to find me,” she began, her voice cracking.

“Jesus, Rosh, like you could have kept me away!” He squeezed her gently. “I had to know if it was really you.”

“Thanks anyway,” she sobbed. “I…have been…so _fucking_ _lonely_.”

“I get that too,” he murmured, running his hand through her hair. “All these people and none of ‘em are your people.”

She pressed her head against his chest and closed her eyes to the sound of his heartbeat.

“I don’t know what I’m gonna do when this is all over,” she added. “Guess I just…carry on making my home here. I can’t go back in time or anything.”

“Welcome to my world,” Theo chuckled humourlessly. “We weren’t born into this time, either of us, but we gotta make the best of it, eh?”

“I’ll make the best of it when I find Shaun,” she promised.


	22. Chapter 22

The airship cut through the early morning sky like a knife, its searchlights blazing, and MacCready watched it through the scope of his rifle and wished to god that his lens was more powerful. He could just about see some vertibirds hovering around it like flies, and he frowned.

It only took him a minute to hop down from his position at the guard post, and run up the road towards Nora’s house, slinging his rifle onto his back. He could see a light on in the concrete shed Nora had set up alongside her old driveway, and three figures standing around talking.

“Hey, boss,” he called, “there’s something you should see.”

He pointed to the airship, and handed her his rifle. She peered through the scope, frowning.

“An airship?” she asked. “Did you see any emblem on it?”

“No,” he replied. “But they’re heading west. They’ll go right past Graygarden.”

Nora put the rifle down, hurrying into her house and the room she’d repurposed as her office. Among the clutter of papers and boxes of ammunition, there was a radio, and she switched it on, picking up the microphone.

“Graygarden, is there anyone there?” she asked. There was a pause. “Graygarden, come in.”

“You boosted the relay towers, right?” a voice asked, and Theo came in, holding a baby.

“You were with me when we did,” she reminded him. The radio suddenly crackled.

_“This is Graygarden.”_

“Graygarden, this is Sanctuary. Do you see an airship?”

_“Kind of difficult to miss, General.”_

“Good. Get a rifle, see if you can spot an emblem or a coat of arms or _anything_ on the ship that might tell us who these people are.”

_“Don’t need to see that, ma’am. They’re broadcasting it.”_

“So who are they?”

_“Brotherhood of Steel, ma’am.”_

“Oh, fuck,” MacCready swore. Nora ignored him.

“Can you spare anyone to check on the Police Station in Cambridge?” she asked.

_“Mathers just told me there’s a vertibird headed in that direction already.”_

“Maria or Joe?”

_“Maria.”_

“Tell her to go make nice with the newcomers. See if Danse will tell her anything. I want to know what they’re doing here.”

_“Yes ma’am.”_

“And please keep yourselves safe.”

_“We will.”_

“It’s pretty obvious what they’re _doing_ here,” RJ pointed out, leaning against the wall. Nora straightened up, and moved over to her father, taking the baby from his arms.

“Yeah, well, I want to hear it from the horse’s mouth,” she replied. The sniper blinked.

“…the heck does that even mean?”

“Straight from the source,” she said. “I want them to confirm it for themselves.”

“What I want to know is what took them so long,” Theo murmured.

“Danse told me a while back that the Brotherhood wouldn’t want to garrison in unfamiliar territory during winter. And it _is_ still spring,” Nora pointed out.

“Practically the end of,” Theo snorted. “It’s May 15th. This little one is already four months old.”

“Well it’s not like I invited the Brotherhood to watch her be born.”

She played her fingers through her daughter’s tight black curls and kissed the top of her head.

“Look, the Brotherhood runs the Capital Wasteland,” MacCready began, taking a few steps out of the office. Nora followed, and the three of them sat down in the living room as Preston appeared at the outside door. “They’re ruthless, okay?”

“Nothing redeemable about them?”

“Except for their sponsoring a project to clean up the water of the Capital,” RJ admitted.

“Huh.”

“Look, they’re hard-nut jackboots with no sense of humour and they openly hate ghouls. And hell, they don’t even like Wastelanders like me. I’m just saying be careful, okay? Your settlements are doing really well but they’re only little, and one guy in a T-60 could wipe them.”

She stroked her palm gently down her child’s back, sighing.

“All right, what do we do then?”

The sniper shrugged, and looked a little embarrassed.

“I don’t know,” he muttered. “You pay _me_ , remember?”

“We take back the Castle.”

They looked up at Preston, and Nora’s face became a mask of confusion.

“The Castle?”

“Fort Independence,” Preston replied. “The Minutemen used to hold it. But something drove us out about 40 years ago, some kind of monster. If I was told right, the Castle has a radio tower that can transmit across the whole of the Commonwealth. If we can take it back, we’ve got a place to hold down that might give even the Brotherhood pause for thought.”

“How quickly can we rally our settlements?” she asked.

“It might take a couple weeks,” Preston admitted. “You could get Jamaica Plain to do some recon first. See what we might need.”

“I’ll get the word out for that. MacCready, how are your guys getting on?”

“I’ve got a couple crack shots, a couple decent shots, and a few of ‘em you’ll wanna give something blunt to instead of a gun,” he replied. “They’re sharpening up pretty good.”

“You think we’ll need to assemble the medics?”

“Absolutely. Not all of them, maybe 5 or so, and the ones who can work quickest. And move a third of our scavenger teams to Jamaica Plain, as a suggestion, so they’re in range of the local comms when we need to get the place ready.”

“I’ll call get the message relayed to Jamaica. Preston, I want you to go to Curie and ask her to pick the fastest and most skilled medics, and get them making stimpaks and radaway. Bobby, draw up a list of people you’d want by your side if I end up wanting to deploy some snipers, then I want you to check your rifle and make sure it’s as good as you can get it. I’m going to send out a few more calls and wait for Mathers to get back to me.”

“And what do you want me to do?” Theo asked.

“That depends. You need any combat armour or supplies?”

“I’ll see what you’ve got in the stores,” he assured her.

“And don’t worry about Nila,” she slid her finger into the baby’s palm and let the tiny digits clasp around it, “she needs feeding anyway.”

“I could get the word out that the mounted division needs to ensure they’ve got clean armour and enough power,” he suggested. “Whilst you wait for Maria to get back to you.”

“That’s a better idea. You stored your armour in Red Rocket, yeah?”

“I did. I’ll use the radio there whilst you’re waiting. Let’s hope Mathers isn’t as brusque as she usually is.”

“God almighty,” her father muttered. “Agreed.”


	23. Chapter 23

By the time Maria got back to her, it was past twelve, and Nila had fallen asleep in Nora’s arms, her weight warm and comforting in the General’s arms.

_“Sanctuary this is Graygarden. Maria came back.”_

“Graygarden, come in.”

 _“Hey General,”_ Mathers’ voice began, _“I spoke to Paladin Danse. Made sure to bring some supplies so they didn’t just turn me away. There were a bunch of knights outside when I got there too. Anyway, Danse said that their Elder must have authorised an attack on the Institute. That big airship is called the Prydwen, and it’s carrying an army.”_

“An attack on the Institute,” Nora repeated. “Did he say anything else?”

_“He said the offer to join up was still open.”_

“Hah!” Nora laughed. “No. I don’t think so. Maria, well done. Take a break if you haven’t already. Then go find Clancy. He’ll tell you what’s going to happen.”

_“We moving against them?”_

“No,” the General began. “No, we’re taking back the Castle.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Paladin Danse.”

Danse looked up from his spot on a chair, midway through cleaning his rifle.

“General,” he began. “Are you here to accept your spot in the Brotherhood?”

“I’m going to have to decline,” Nora apologised. “I’m just here to ask you where your new airship is.”

“Boston Airport,” Danse replied. “Why do you ask?”

“We’re on our way to take Fort Independence, which I think is about south of the Airport. So you might want to tell your Elder if he sees 20 people in power armour fighting towards the south that he doesn’t need to panic. It’s just us.”

“So this is what you’ve been doing for the last few months,” he remarked, whistling. “I just hope you understand the Brotherhood is here to _help_ , not to invade.”

“Well, when we have a base of operations, I’ll be sure to talk to your Elder,” she promised. “Also, I hope Maria wasn’t too…brusque.”

“She was exceptionally straight to the point, but she did bring a crate of purified water and some boxes of preserved food, so I found myself inclined to forgive her slightly rough approach,” Danse assured her, a small smile curving his mouth, just enough to be cheeky.

Nora suddenly found herself glad of the power armour, the helmet that obscured her face. She could feel her teeth sinking into her lip.

“Well, that was all I wanted to report,” she managed. “I imagine I’ll be seeing Brotherhood patrols soon.”

“Absolutely. We’ll be investigating areas of the Commonwealth to scavenge for Pre-War tech. I hope it doesn’t bring us into conflict.”

Fuck this suit. She wanted to cross her arms and cock her hip. Not easy to do in a set of armour.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” she began. “Stay safe.”

She could feel Danse’s eyes on her back as she left.

 

* * *

 

 

It took them several days to cross the Commonwealth, and several groups were already waiting for them when they arrived, on lookout and patrolling.

Nora was moments from climbing out of her power armour when Preston approached her, an older woman stalking behind him.

“General, this’s-”

“Ronnie Shaw,” the woman barked. “Used to be First Lieutenant Shaw back in the day. So you’re the new General?”

Nora got out of her armour and took in a deep breath before she finally replied.

“Yeah,” she began. “That’s me. General Roshanara Pendleton, at your service. If you like, you can call me Nora.”

“I’m impressed you pulled these idiots together,” Shaw said. “Maybe you are worth that title after all.”

“I tend to think of them a little more fondly than idiots,” Nora replied with a nervous chuckle.

“Huh. Maybe.” There was a pause. “I know this old place like the back of my hand. You need my help taking it, trust me.”

“Then by all means,” Nora invited. “Any paper, maps? I need some plans of attack and places to defend from.”

“I’ll see if I’ve got some paper,” Preston suggested.

“Thanks, Colonel.”

Nora’s gaze swept along the ranks of the Minutemen, humming.

“What’re you thinking?” Shaw asked.

“Sound off!” Nora yelled, pulling up her list of settlements on her PipBoy. “Abernathy Farm!”

No response.

“Still on their way? Clancy, get the message relayed to them, ask where they are.”

“Yes ma’am!”

“Coastal Cottage!”

“They’re not here!”

“All right, let’s change the order,” Nora sighed. “When I call your settlement, if you are here, respond with your squad size and designations! Jamaica Plain!”

“Present, three units, one infantry, one armoured, one medic!”

“Warwick!”

“Present, four units, all infantry!”

“Murkwater!”

“Present, two units, one infantry, one armoured!”

“Somerville!”

Silence.

“That’s totally fair, to be honest,” she muttered. “Egret Marina!”

“Present! Three units, one infantry, one armoured, one medic!”

“Hangman’s Alley!”

“Present! One medic!”

Maria was one of the two from Graygarden, armoured and armed to the teeth.  Sunshine Tidings sent four armoured soldiers that turned up just as she called for them. Jake Finch alone came from Finch Farm, wearing a set of armour. They were now waiting on the slightly further settlements, and as Nora counted up the numbers, her brows rose.

“34 Minutemen, including us,” she said to Preston. “Not counting the ones we haven’t heard from yet. Clancy, how’s that going?”

“Abernathy Farm’s on its way!” the blond replied. “A day, tops. They’re all infantry and those guys move _fast_.”

“Hope the Co Op won’t run out of power,” Nora muttered. “They’re all armoured and it’s a heck of a way to come.”

“I have spare fusion cores,” Curie assured her. “They will be fine.”

“34 is way more than I thought,” Preston began. “We might even have too many.”

“Never too many,” Ronnie said with a rough chuckle. “We don’t know what took that wall down, and I don’t wanna. You want my advice, General, get your best sniper and get them up on the roof. Maybe several.”

Nora looked up.

“Bobby MacCready!” she yelled.

“Yes boss?” RJ asked, standing.

“How good are you at climbing?” she asked, wandering over.

“Pretty decent, I guess,” he said. “Why do you ask?”

“Get your best shots and get them up on those buildings,” she ordered. “If you need any help get one of the armoured lot to give you a boost.”

“Oh, Christ,” the sniper sighed. “Eric, Ally, Cara, with me.”

The three Minutemen sitting with him stood, and made their way over to the blocks of flats. She watched them start to climb.

“Final count’s in, ma’am!” Clancy called. Nora walked back to him. “58.”

“That’s fantastic!” Preston laughed, grinning. “Aw man!”

“58,” Nora repeated. “Wow.”

“Hey, Nora!” a voice called, and she turned to see Piper and Nick making their way through the crowd. “I heard you were going to be here!”

“Make that sixty,” Nora told him. “I…wow, hey. I…you came to help out?”

“Well, yeah, I mean, you’re our friend,” Piper chuckled.

“Besides, I can’t help but notice you only took interest in this place after the Font of Peaceful Intentions blew in on a storm,” Nick drawled, mouth curled into something just shy of a smirk.

“It seemed opportune,” Nora replied.

“Very much so.”

“Hey, General, vertibird incoming!” Mathers yelled.

A black speck was hovering in the sky in the north, and as Nora squinted, it got bigger, the sound of engines slowly reaching their ears. It took two minutes to reach them, just long enough for the assembled troops to clear a space for the vehicle to land. She noticed them forming into their groups, hurrying into rank.

An armoured figure jumped out, quickly followed by two people dressed similarly to Scribe Haylen, and there was silence as the armoured soldier made his way over to Nora.

“Am I right in assuming you would be General Pendleton?” he asked.

“That’s correct,” she confirmed. “Who are you?”

“Paladin Edward Kent,” the man informed her. “These two are Scribes, Lorenz and King. That’s Lancer Wade in the ‘bird. Brotherhood of Steel, East Coast chapter.”

“Did your Elder send you?”

“He did,” Kent said. “I believe he said something about…repaying a debt?”

“Danse,” Nora told him. “Did he tell you what the debt was?”

“No ma’am. Just that we were to chronicle your attack and aid you in any way that you needed us to.”

“Well, he has my thanks,” the General assured him. “We’re still waiting on the last few groups, but they shouldn’t take long. A day or two, at most.”

“You’re not worried you’ll attract attention to your position?” Kent asked.

“We’ll put eyes on the local problems, if it hasn’t been done already,” Nora began.

“I’ll take care of that,” Preston called.

“We have copies of maps from the Citadel that will give you a good idea of how this place is structured,” Kent informed her. “Our Proctor wanted to study the local historic value and this place was on the list.”

Nora nodded. “All right, give it half an hour and I’ll want a fully-assembled war council to help me go over this. Ronnie, you want to make sure these kids are whipped into shape?”

“My pleasure,” the First Lieutenant cackled.

“Oh, and I’m promoting you,” Nora added. “Consider yourself our newest Brigadier-General.”

“Much obliged, General.”

“I’m giving the remaining groups two days,” Nora said, turning back to Kent. “On the third, we make our attack. You have enough supplies until then?”

“We’re fully equipped.”

“Great. Mathers, make sure everyone plays nice.”

“Hold on a second!” Maria protested. “I am _not-_ ”

“Mathers, I don’t know what your beef is with the Brotherhood, but right now, it’s not helping,” Nora warned.

“…yes ma’am.”

“Oh, General!”

One of the Scribes hurried over to her.

“What do you need?” Nora asked.

“Scribe Felicia Lorenz,” the woman began. “We were curious as to the nature of your Vault? Vault 111? You’re aware of their experimental purpose, I assume?”

“Oh, I’m aware,” Nora replied, and managed to stifle her dry, humourless laugh. “Why do you ask?”

“Is your vault still viable?”

“It’s a graveyard,” Nora said bluntly. “I’m the only survivor.”

“What about your parentage? Your ancestry? I assume you were born in the Vault.”

“Hey, Dad!” Nora yelled. Her father wandered over. “This is my father.”

“And is he a Pendleton too?”

“No, it’s my married surname. Why would it matter?”

Lorenz pulled out a notepad and began hurriedly scribbling.

“I assume you married a man? If so, is he still alive? Do you have any offspring?”

Nora folded her arms, scowling.

“I’m sorry, Scribe Lorenz, but this line of questioning is quite invasive, and none of your business. You can tell your Elder that if he’s going to interrogate me as part of the care package, you can all get back in your vertibird and return to the Prydwen,” she growled.

Lorenz froze.

“Ma’am, this…it’s very important,” she managed. “This information…”

“Fine. Ask your questions,” she snapped, swallowing down the sudden, painful lump in her throat.

“Did you have any offspring?” Lorenz repeated.

“One son,” Nora replied.

“And your husband?”

“Is dead,” she replied, so very close to snapping, taking in a deep breath.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Felicia mumbled. “And…the population of your Vault, what was it before…whatever caused the deaths?”

“I don’t know, 20, maybe,” she sighed. “Not including the scientists. I don’t know how many of them there were.”

“How did you survive 2 centuries without huge defects caused by all the inbreeding?” Lorenz muttered.

“Inbreed- oh. No, no, Scribe, you’ve got it all wrong, the Vault wasn’t…it’s not supposed to…we…ugh, how do I…”

Nora sighed.

“How old do you think I am?” she asked. Lorenz eyed her.

“Uh, mid 20s, maybe? Youthful skin, few grey hairs, excellent shape. Yup, mid 20’s.”

“Lorenz, I was born in 2048.”

“You mean…2248?”

“No, I was born in 2048,” Nora repeated. “As in, 210 years ago. As in…before the Great War.”

“But…how…”

“Cryogenics,” the General announced. “They froze up me, my family and my neighbours. We weren’t supposed to wake up ever again.”

“And your father was frozen too? This is fascinating!” Lorenz gasped.

“Uh…no,” Nora chuckled. “Do you want to…?”

“Might give her a heart attack,” Theo pointed out.

“That’s true.”

“What’s he talking abo-“

Theo’s armour hissed open, and the ghoul stepped out. Nora watched Lorenz visibly recoil.

“…I…see,” she said faintly.

“My dad’s a ghoul,” Nora explained kindly.

“S-so…were you the only Pendleton in the Vault?” Lorenz stammered, scribbling away furiously. “As in, your family? No other Pendletons?”

“Just us,” Nora assured her. “Now, Scribe, please, do I get to know what this was about?”

“There’s, uh, kind of a legend, especially among the scribes,” Lorenz began, fiddling with her pencil. “It’s...how do I…explain? Our founder…he had two very beloved friends with the same last name that went into Vault 111.”

“Huh.”

“And…it was Proctor Quinlan’s hope that, whilst the Prydwen was docked in the airport, and the mission ongoing, that we could investigate the Vault, see what happened, what kind of Vault it even was. Then, lo and behold, Danse reports back that a woman in a Vault 111 jumpsuit gave him aid. Proctor Quinlan was… _very_ excited,” Felicia began.

“Well, here I am,” Nora murmured. Lorenz flushed, and turned on her heel.

“King!” she yelled. “Anthony King!”

“Lorenz?”

“Get over here! It’s her!”

The male scribe hurried over, leaving Kent alone with Mathers, and Nora had a feeling that if she could see under her helmet, Maria would be rolling her eyes.

“S-so your full name,” Lorenz managed, “is it…Roshanara?”

“Yes, it is,” Nora said. “I’m sorry, who did you say your founder was?”

“Oh!”

“You didn’t _tell_ her?!” King demanded. “ _Creator_ , Lorenz…”

“I got carried away!” Lorenz protested. “Roger Maxson, his name was Roger Maxson.”

Nora’s eyes widened, mouth dropping open. She could _hear_ his voice, purring her name into her ear, faint memories of his hands on her body as she gasped, her heart suddenly so very loud, pounding like a drum.

“Wait, Nate’s friend?” Theo asked. “The army captain. The…uh…your…how do I put this nicely?”

“My boyfriend,” Nora blurted out. It was the Scribes’ turn to look shocked.

_“Your what?!”_

 “You did _not_ hear that!” Nora snapped. “Friend. My friend. A very close friend.”

“No, you definitely implied a romantic and or sexual relationship,” King pointed out. “W-would you be willing to answer more questions?”

“Okay!” Nora snapped. “But only when the Castle is…liberated. I don’t mean to be rude, but now I’m going to fight with this over my head as a distraction. Scribes, can you please return to Paladin Kent? I have to get ready for a war council.”

“Just one more question?”

 _“No._ ”


	24. Chapter 24

“So, everyone knows the plan?” Nora asked.

7:am, day 3, and Nora’s impromptu war council had gathered in the old diner around the copies of the maps Paladin Kent had brought with him. His armour was outside with the 13 other sets, fusion cores safely removed for now. The man beneath the armour, Nora had discovered, was a blond with green eyes and a standard soldier’s build.

“Unless you’ve changed your mind,” Kent suggested.

“No,” she chuckled. “Everyone want to tell me what they’re doing, then?”

“I’m leading half the infantry around the perimeter to do a sweep,” Ronnie began.

“The other half go with me up the walls and clear out the upper walkways of the Castle,” Preston continued.

“Lorenz and King will get in the vertibird and Wade will give you fire support, whilst I join you on the ground in the armoured division,” Kent said.

“And you and I take the vanguard of the armoured division,” Theo finished.

“And, whilst you’re all in the Castle, half my team will be watching out for local wildlife, and the other half will be helping out by sniping anything that moves,” MacCready added.

“Emergency protocol for bigger things than Mirelurks. I send up a flare and…?”

“Infantry gets the fuck out of there,” Cait called. “An’ we show up and fuck it up.” 

“With explosions,” Nora said. “Paladin, I assume you’re capable of taking care of yourself.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Curie, you know your orders?”

“Stay back with the medics, and ensure that _monsieur_ MacCready can give us covering fire should we need to run.”

“Okay,” Nora began, and took in a deep breath. There was a moment’s pause, and she bit her lip. “Well, no point in waiting around. Let’s go take back the Castle.”

In two minutes, the sound of fourteen sets of power armour snapping shut reverberated around the gathering of Minutemen, and MacCready’s posse of sharpshooters clambered back onto the nearby roofs as the two scribes got into the vertibird. 20 Minutemen headed off, Ronnie at their head, and Preston gathered the other half. Curie’s medics set up their base in the old diner, and one by one those in the armoured division that were equipped with missile launchers slung them onto their backs and loaded their guns.

“Where did you get your arsenal?” Kent asked, as Nora marched herself towards the broken section of Castle wall.

“You spend seven months diving into Pre-War ruins and raiding raiders, you tend to find things lying around,” she replied. “And if you don’t, other people will, and they’ll usually sell it to you if you offer enough caps.”

“It’s an impressive stockpile,” the Paladin admitted, falling in line behind her as Theo brought up the rear.

“Thanks,” she chuckled. “I’m guessing it’s not a patch on whatever the Brotherhood have.”

“For a Wasteland Militia, though? What you’ve managed is beyond what most of ‘em can scrounge.”

“I’m starting to think you’re trying to flatter me for some reason,” she drawled. “Now, excuse me.”

Mathers moved up next to her as she led the main force into the Courtyard, and they spread out, guns blazing seconds later, Mirelurks popping out of the ground. Preston’s forces slipped past, climbing the stairs, the air filling with red light. Nora crushed a nest of Mirelurk eggs beneath her foot as Theo blasted several rounds into a softshell’s leg.

A ‘lurk corpse was tossed from the top of the wall as several armoured figures split off from the main bulk and headed inside, and a bullet buried itself in the leg of a Mirelurk sneaking up behind her. She didn’t even need to turn to know the snipers were covering her, and a heavy armoured boot kicked an oversized crab in the face as all around her the Minutemen laid into the beasts.

She was blasting a shot into a hatchling when she heard Preston shout ‘all clear!’ from above her.

“Mathers, Dad, keep me defended!” she yelled, and the two figures closed ranks as Nora ran over to the wall. “Preston, get them all down, and get back to the base camp! We-”

An ear-splitting roar filled the air, and she whirled around to find the source of the noise.

“Mirelurk Queen!” a voice screamed, and Nora grabbed her flare gun and fired a shot.

“Infantry retreat! Armoured unit, find it and kill it! Kent, can you get your bird in the air?”

Kent replied by firing a golden flare into the air, and immediately the sound of a vertibird engine rang across the space. Infantry began to scramble past her as the Minutemen on the south wall started firing wildly, and just as Preston found her side, something huge appeared at the southern breach.

Acid spat clear across the courtyard, and Kent, his eyes on the rising ‘bird, found Mathers dragging him to one side to avoid the sudden splatter.

“Paladin, wake up!” Nora snapped. “Get inside, everyone!”

“We’ll be trapped!” Preston warned, as fourteen figures dashed into the Castle.

“I’ve got it!” Nora promised. “Heavy weapons, arms yourselves! Preston, we’re going to murder this thing. All right! Relay this message, it’s only happening once!”

Minigun fire filled the air outside.

“Missiles, follow me and get up top! Preston, direct covering fire from behind these doors. Do NOT go outside, Garvey, you hear me?!”

“Yes ma’am!”

“Let’s go!”

Five Minutemen followed Nora up the stairs, spreading out across the top of the Castle walls, missile launchers in hand. Above, the vertibird hovered out of reach, Lorenz firing with expert precision at the Queen.

“Go for the legs and the body!” Nora yelled at each Minuteman, loading her shot. As the beast turned to them, laser shots rang out from below, brief bursts of covering fire as they loaded. With so many targets, the Queen let out a scream of rage, and Nora took aim.

“Fire!”

Three missiles blasted into the Queen’s torso, and it screamed again, listing heavily to the left. One blasted into its legs, another into its face, and Nora went for the eyes.

Volley after volley hit the mutated creature, the force of each shot beating at its armoured hide. Scribe King appeared on the other side of the bird with a ballistic rifle as Nora reloaded, and when the next gleaming red line of covering fire hit the Queen, she folded, her limbs crippled. And then it was just a matter of unloading missile after missile into her, until with a final scream, it toppled and fell.

The gunfire ceased, and Nora paused, watching the life bleed out of it.

Silence filled the courtyard.

“I think it’s dead,” she called, and jumped off the walls.

 

* * *

 

 

“Quit squirming,” Maria ordered the Paladin, as she swabbed his wounds.

“I’m not squirming,” he protested, and flinched as she pressed the antiseptic cloth hard against him. “You’re doing that on purpose!”

“You’re wounded!”

“Mathers, play nice!” Nora called, as Curie wrapped a bandage around a cut on her arm.

The issue with Mirelurk Queens, apparently, was that the acid burned through armour plating. _Nora’s_ issue right now was that her Vault suit was unzipped, and the whole of the gathered militia and four members of the Brotherhood could see her half-naked and wounded.

Then again, nobody was exactly in the best shape right now. There were 11 dead and plenty of injured. Ronnie’s group had the least wounds, and they’d divided up their time between retrieving the dead and aiding the medics. They’d also helped MacCready’s group off the roofs. As Nora watched, they laid out bodies in a line.

“What do we do with our dead, General?” Preston asked.

“I…shit, that’s…a tough question,” she mused. “Pragmatically speaking, take their weapons and hats, have the others identify them. Honestly, each group should make their own decisions, just so long as we don’t leave them here. It’ll attract other predators.”

“I’ll get everyone to look over the dead,” he assured her. “You relax for a bit.”

“While you’re relaxing, you want me to have a look at that radio tower?” Theo asked. Curie stepped back to let her examine the bandage.

“Yes, please,” she replied, and shrugged back into her suit, zipping herself up.

“Kent, we’ve got an incoming transmission from the Prydwen!” Wade called, and the Paladin hopped up, brushing past the Minuteman as he pulled his jumpsuit back on.

“He’s a jerk, but my god, those suits,” she muttered, and Nora snorted, loud and embarrassed.

“Oh my god, Maria!”

“Shh!”

Kent got into the vertibird as Theo wandered back towards the Castle. Preston was speaking to two of the Starlight Infantry, one of whom was crying openly, looking at a body on the ground. Nora swallowed, kicking her heels. The casualties could have been worse, but…

“You did your best, Blue,” Piper told her, approaching, and as the woman reached her, she found herself being hugged by the reporter, who patted her back gently. “And, you got this place set up!”

“I know,” Nora murmured.

“Nothing really to say, is there?” Nick sighed.

“You spend seven months building these people up, and in one battle a tenth of those assembled are gone,” she muttered. “And, this was just against Mirelurks! What happens if I drag them up against the Institute?!”

“I know, doll.”

“Hey, General!”

Kent was hurrying towards them.

“Elder Maxson wants to speak with you.”

“Did…you say… _Elder_ Maxson?” Nora asked. Kent paused.

“I assume you’ve not been told who the Elder is at all,” he guessed.

“No, not really,” she agreed. “So…your Elder is a descendent of…Roger?”

“Yes ma’am,” Kent said, nodding her towards the vertibird.

 _“Why,”_ she began, “do you people _drop_ this information on me _moments_ before I face large objectives?!”

“I promise it’s not intentional,” the Paladin told her, as she followed him over to the vehicle. Scribe Lorenz perked up as she approached, and Kent shook his head before she could say a thing.

“Lorenz, don’t look so delighted, she’s not here to answer your questions.”

The female scribe deflated, but she watched the General as the woman stepped onto the vertibird, a little uneasily. Nora felt herself looking quickly to the Lancer at the controls, in case the ‘bird suddenly took off. Wade pointed her to the radio.

“Sir, General Pendleton is here.”

“Hi,” Nora began.

 _“General,”_ a voice said. Nora _buried_ the urge to bite her lip at the sound, crossing her arms over her body as her weight shifted to one foot. _“What’s the state of your troops?”_

“We’ve got dead and wounded,” she replied.

_“And yourself?”_

“A few acid burns, some cuts, and a string of bruises,” she replied. “Why do you ask?”

_“Would they stop you from travelling aboard a vertibird?”_

“They’re not serious. Are you inviting me aboard the Prydwen?”

_“Consider this a formal invitation, General. I’d like to know who’s in charge of protecting the Commonwealth.”_

“I appreciate the offer, Elder. I’d just like to know how long I can stretch it out. I’ve got a lot of work to do here.”

_“In that case, I can come to you.”_

“Huh.”

Nora paused. Nervous, her eyes fell on the Paladin, who looked intrigued.

“I guess I don’t have a problem with it. If you think it’s, uh, wise.”

_Jesus, Nora, how about not stammering in front of a guy piloting a warship._

_“Then it’s settled. I’ll have the lancer return to the Prydwen. The Paladin and the Scribes can remain and help you in whatever capacity you need.”_

“Well, then, I await your arrival, Elder Maxson.”

_“Kent, Lorenz, King, I expect you to aid the General until I arrive.”_

“Yes sir.”

_“Ad Victoriam.”_

 

* * *

 

 

“Is she arguing with him because he’s a ghoul or because she really does know better?” Maria commented, watching Lorenz and Theo quarrelling heatedly over the production of a generator.

“Probably the first one,” Nora sighed, as Curie changed the bandages on her arm.

“Take a shot every time she says ‘I know what I’m doing,’” Mathers suggested, pulling a canister of water out of her bag. “Oh, great, here comes Paladin Jumpsuit.”

“You know, he’s not actually done anything wrong,” Nora murmured, and hissed. “Ow.”

“Apologies,” Curie said, injecting the stimpak into her.

“Some of us are from the Capital,” Mathers muttered.

“Paladin Kent,” Nora said as the man made his way towards them, wiping oil off his hands. Mathers bitched, but she didn’t stop her eyes dropping down the man’s body, his orange suit around his waist.

“I took the liberty of going over your armour,” he began. “The standard T-45 models are less impressive than the T-60-”

“Kent,” Nora started gently.

“Right.” He had the grace to look slightly embarrassed. “The short answer is the frame is still damaged and will need some work with better tools than what I have with me. The shorter answer is, it’s wearable.”

“And the long answer?”

“It’s wearable for a short distance but you’ll go slowly since some of the joints have welded together. You may even consider taking it apart and rebuilding it – if that’s possible with the premises.”

“I never liked power armour much anyway,” Nora said.

“That’s…not a smart decision, ma’am,” Kent told her, voice weakened by surprise.

“And the armour plating?”

“Left side has a few acid holes, right side is less damaged. You should be able to fix that. Most of the trouble came from where the spray hit the joints. Other than that, you’re fine. Oh, and, Mathers, thanks for the save.”

Maria’s eyes widened a fraction, and she muttered a rough ‘you’re welcome.’ Kent actually smiled. Nora stifled a laugh, and turned her attention back to the generator, which was now chugging away. Her father was wrapping rubber around wire, with Lorenz attempting to do it faster, and a few moments later, they were connecting the radio to the power source.

Light flickered in the little shelter.

“Where’s Clancy?” Nora called.

“Here, ma’am!” the blond replied.

“You know you spend all your time at the radio?” she asked. “You wanna do that all day?”

“Well, why the hell not?”

The Minuteman sat down, turning on the station, and the sound of fiddles slowly filled the air.

“Oh god,” she realised, “that’s going to play constantly.”

“Ma’am, vertibird on the horizon!”

Joe Mathers hopped down from his post on lookout and ran to his General, eyes roaming critically over the half-dressed Paladin, who quickly zipped himself up.

“Clancy, please turn the god-awful music off!” Nora yelled.

He hurried to flip a switch, and the music cut out. Kent snorted at her left, trying hard to disguise the laughter with a cough.

“All right, we are _so_ replacing that with something better if we can,” she muttered. “Wait, shit.”

She quickly pulled her suit back up, zipping up as the vertibird approached.

“Preston Garvey, Dad, Curie! Get over here!”

“Stressed, General?” Preston asked, as the three of them made their way over to her.

“You guessed?” she muttered, moving forward.

“You usually say please.”

“I look very unimpressive,” she sighed. “Just this slightly bloodied Vault suit and nothing else.”

Preston took his hat off, and put it on her head.

“Thanks, Garvey,” she whispered. He laughed softly.

“No problem, General.”

“Hey, you keep it,” she added, putting it back on him.

“Don’t make this a hat-fight,” he warned. “Because I’ll win. I’ll put it on you just before they land and then you’ll have to keep it.”

“As your superior, I order you to keep the hat.”

“You pulling rank?”

“That I am.”

“This is very confusing,” Curie whispered to Theo.

“…you win. But, I’ll get you a hat, and a uniform. Can’t wear that Vault suit forever.”

The whirring blades brought the vertibird over the courtyard, and slowly, it lowered, setting down on the dirt. Nora swallowed.

“No big deal, just a technologically advanced army with a blimp,” she murmured. “And I’m going to chat with my boyfriend’s offspring.”

“One of these days, I need you to explain that to me,” Preston muttered.

“I will,” she promised, as the engines cut out, and four figures disembarked.

The first figure to get out was a man in a long grey coat with spectacles, who was followed by another in a scribe uniform, and then a woman in a modified suit of power armour. They fanned out around the vehicle as the fourth figure jumped down, a man in a black jumpsuit similar to Kent’s, a long brown aviator’s coat around his shoulders. Even from here, a good 20 feet from her, Nora could see that he was good-looking, and internally, she let out a sigh.

_Perfect. This is exactly what I need to deal with._

He strode towards her, his gait confident and long. Nora swallowed, and politely took a few steps in his direction. He was closer, and now she could see the thick beard, the hard lines of his face, the cropped black hair and the _eyes_.

Roger Maxson’s eye colour had survived two hundred years, and the icy blue staring her down was not helping the slow burn of arousal creeping through her body.  She buried the urge to bite her lip as he finally reached her, and her eyes flicked up to focus on Elder Maxson’s face.

“General,” he began after a long silence, and saluted her, right hand going to his chest. She nodded, and gave him her best in return, her own right hand at her temple with the palm down.

“Elder,” she replied. Her arms folded over her chest as she dropped her hand, and he clasped his own behind his back, puffing out his chest just a little.

“What’s the damage here?”

“To us, or to the structure?”

“Both.”

“No additional damage to the Castle,” she began, “other than the west and southern breaches. As for us, we’ve got 11 dead and multiple wounded. We’re also…excuse me…knee-deep in dead Mirelurks, crab shit and egg clusters. Whoever isn’t wounded is cleaning the Castle up.”

“How are your fortifications?”

“Non-existent, other than these walls here.”

“Can you list any of the surrounding threats?”

“Mutants, I think, and Mirelurks.”

“You’re extremely close to an Institute-held location called University Point. Are you certain you want to set up a base here?”

“The radio tower here broadcasts across the whole of the Commonwealth, it’s worth the hassle. Once we get some turrets up and patrols organised, we’ll be set.”

“I see.”

His eyes flicked briefly behind her before returning to her face.

“Proctor Quinlan and his squires would like to continue to ask questions,” he added, gesturing to the man with the glasses. “Cade can help treat your wounded, and Ingram will look at your sets of power armour, should you need her to.”

“I appreciate it,” Nora said earnestly. “Thankyou.”

“As I understand it, you’ve offered food and firepower to Paladin Danse since October. He’s one of my most respected field officers, and he recommended seeking you out the moment we retrieved his squad from the police station,” Maxson told her. “Shall I assume you’re still set on remaining independent from the Brotherhood? You would make an excellent Knight.”

“I prefer to progress under my own steam, Elder, but, I wouldn’t be averse to making some kind of alliance,” she suggested. He nodded.

“And what are your plans to move against the Institute? The Paladin mentioned you had some kind of…score to settle with them.”

“Mmm, something like that.”

“The Brotherhood is here to take them down. Is there anything we can do to help?”

“Why don’t we talk and work at the same time?” she suggested.

“Lead on.”

“Curie, can you take Cade to the wounded?” she asked.

“ _Oui_. Follow me, _monsieur_ ,” Curie said, and the two of them made their way towards the inside of the Castle.

“Dad, take Ingram to Kent and the suits,” Nora added. The ghoul shot her a strange, slightly smug look, and Ingram’s brow raised, but she didn’t say anything as she followed the ghoul over to where the suits of armour were being tinkered with.

“That’s your father?” Maxson asked, surprise tinging his voice.

“Yes, he survived the bombs down in Florida and came to Massachusetts to see if he could find me and my family,” she replied.

“I see.”

 She put her rifle down on the workbench and found a wrench.

“General, what are your plans?” he asked again. “Have you located the Institute?”

“No, but I’ve got a lead,” she replied.

“Will you require the Brotherhood’s help?”

“I’m going into the Glowing Sea. Advice?”

“Other than that your plan of action is insanity?”

“I don’t have any _choice_ , Elder,” she said, swallowing down a wave of bitter anger. “The Institute kidnapped my son. I’ll march into a radioactive hellhole if it will get him back.”

“…are you telling me this entire militia, your current campaign, and your entire drive against the Institute is…because you lost your son to them?”

“Yes.” She looked up at him curiously. “Why?”

“It’s…admirable.”

“Well, thankyou.”

“Hey, General!” Ronnie called. “If you want something to do, I just found the old tunnels that’ll get us into the armoury!”

“We have an armoury?” Nora muttered. “Ronnie? Show me what you’ve got!”

The older woman gestured for them to follow, and Nora grabbed her rifle, trailing after her as they made their way into an old set of quarters.

“Used to be where the General would sleep,” Ronnie began. “I got a few grunts digging at the crap in this doorway.”

“I’m not a grunt,” Kent complained. His power armour was covered in dust.

“Anyway, there’s enough space for us to squeeze through and get down there,” she continued. “Shouldn’t be anything down there, but uh, you, uh, Elder, what’s your name?”

“Elder Maxson,” the man reminded her, a spark of irritation flashing across his face.

“Right. What’ve you got in terms of weapons?”

“There’s a gatling laser on the vertibird,” he said. “Are you suggesting I should arm myself?”

“Just in case,” she told him. “And General, see if someone’ll lend you some armour. I’m not saying it’s a death trap…”

The Elder turned, his coat swishing behind him as he left the room, and Ronnie watched him go with a critical look.

“Hey, sonny, quit gawking and go find that girl you’re mooning after,” she barked at Kent. Nora swallowed a small laugh as the man straightened up, and headed off. “You sure about this, General?”

“The idea of an alliance?”

“Yeah. They just barged in with a flying ship and a fleet of vertibirds. I don’t want you putting us together as pals just because you’re scared.”

“It’ll be fine,” Nora said. “I promise. I’m level-headed. He seems to be as well.”

“Heh, the level-headed approach is why you two were eyefucking across the courtyard earlier?” the older woman chuckled. Nora’s eyes widened, a flush spreading over her face.

“Ronnie!” she protested. “B-brigadier-General…”

The older woman cackled. “I was right! You going to be able to work with him?”

“It’s not…he just…he reminds me of his ancestor,” she muttered. The woman’s brow rose.

“You knew his pa, huh?”

“Add a few greats.”

“…sometimes I forget you ain’t from around here.”

“I’m going to grab some armour,” Nora said firmly. “I’ll meet you back here when I’m ready.”

“Yes ma’am.”


	25. Chapter 25

“Wee-ooh, it is _dark_ down here,” Ronnie chuckled as the doors closed behind them. A moment later there came a scratching and whining sound, and Nora pushed one of the doors open to let Dogmeat slip in with them.

“I can fix that,” she offered, and a moment later, the three of them were bathed in the bright pink light of her PipBoy. “I’d apologise for the colour…”

“I can assure you, General, I’m slightly more concerned with misplacing my feet than with the tone of your flashlight,” the Elder told her. The Gatling laser he was carrying was immense, and Nora was impressed at how easily he seemed to be holding it.

“And I’m more concerned with the structural integrity of this place,” she sighed, as Ronnie took a few steps forward. The older woman crouched down and quickly deactivated a mine, picking it up.

“Sure is shoddy-looking,” Ronnie agreed. “Still, holds up well for a 400 year old building.”

“Twice my age,” Nora commented, looking around the small room. “Brain fungus. Yum. Tail end of a generator. I don’t even want to think about how thick the dirt is on this floor.”

“There’s a section of the roof in here that’s buckling dangerously. Watch out for the mine,” Maxson called, looking through into the next room. Nora joined him, and the man handed her a deactivated mine.

“Thankyou, Elder. So I need a squadron of maids, and to find out what’s causing that damage,” she decided, as her German Shepherd swept past her. “Dogmeat, baby, don’t get too far ahead!”

“Your pet’s name is…Dogmeat?” Maxson asked.

“Yeah. Found him outside of a Red Rocket after coming out the Vault,” Nora replied. “Why?”

“I knew a woman with a dog that had the exact same name.”

“Well, the country is only _so_ many thousands of square feet,” the General said with a small smile. “Guess two people had to think of the name at once at some point. Oh, glowing fungus! That’s useful for Radaway, isn’t it?”

She pulled a pen out of her pocket and began scribbling on her hand, moving through the archway and across the hall, into the next room.

“Well look what I found,” Ronnie called, her voice wafting from another section of the tunnels. “Cannon shot. And some bags of cement.”

“Ammunition for a cannon is less useful, but the cement…”

Nora listed it on her hand.

“Also, that’s a hole in the wall. That’s going to need patching.”

“Some of the damage here is quite severe,” Maxson warned her. “See this steel beam here? The ceiling it’s holding is buckling badly. You won’t be able to fix this overnight.”

“I’ll do a whip ‘round of the settlements and see if any of the ghouls had building qualifications back before the War.”

“That’s a wise course of action, General, but the Brotherhood doesn’t just have access to high tech weapons and armour. We have architectural drawings, as well as the knowledge to build an airship. Fixing the damage time has wrought here would be within our capabilities.”

“I don’t want to steal all your resources,” Nora told him, and turned, striding through the room towards the corridor at the end, to where the bright light of a construction lamp blazed across the dirt. “I like to use my own power.”

“Which is admirable, but I wasn’t suggesting it come free,” the Elder said.

“Fusion cells,” Nora murmured, peering through the dark archway. Ronnie was paused by the wall, holding Dogmeat. “What’s wrong?”

“Turret,” Ronnie warned. “How do we deal with it?”

“I’ve got a grenade in here but I’m worried it’ll damage the stonework,” Nora said. “Elder, any ideas?”

“My gatling laser fires 340 rounds a minute,” he replied. “Is that an acceptable solution?”

“That depends on whether or not your coat is bulletproof.”

“It’ll hold up long enough if you give me a moment to charge the laser.”

“It’s your call, Elder. I’d rather not put you in danger.”

The man gave her a short nod and the gatling laser began to whirr, spinning slowly.

“I wasn’t suggesting it come free either,” Nora agreed, rubbing Dogmeat’s head. “What were you thinking to trade?”

“For a start, you control most of the food production in the Commonwealth,” he told her. “That’s a point of interest for anyone who needs to feed an army. And secondly, you as a person contain knowledge the Brotherhood will be deeply interested in for the records.”

“Is this because of my connection to Captain Maxson?”

“Correct.” He hefted the gun into his arms. “Give me a moment.”

He darted across the open doorway, and bullets flew into the stonework as he cleared the arch, holding the laser gun tightly. She watched him look between his gun and the doorway, and then, just as the gun began to spark with red light, he threw himself into the other room and fired. The room filled with red light, and a moment later a small explosion rocked them, showering them with dust.

“Elder?” Nora called.

“Turret destroyed,” he replied, and the three of them moved to meet him. He looked none the worse for wear.

Other than being covered in a layer of soot from the smoking turret, of course.

“Teagan isn’t going to be pleased,” he sighed, brushing a few embers from the coat.

“I’m guessing you didn’t find that coat lying around.”

There was a brief pause as they left the room, hands clapped over mouths to stop themselves from breathing in the smoke.

“This is a custom-made armoured jacket,” Maxson told her. “No, it was not lying around.”

“Structural damage in here is minimal,” Nora noted as they passed through the next room. “And there’s a fusion generator down here. Interesting. I’ll see if I can get that reconnected to the rest of the Castle.”

She reached the end of the room and peered through the doorway. The corridor was blocked on the right, but the left was a short hallway with an archway on the right, and after checking for mines and anything else, she wandered over to it and peered into the next room. It was large, dark, and she took a few steps in, eyes surveying two sets of bunkbeds and some shelving, an empty bottle lying on an old mattress. Further down the room, a light shone over a desk, and a terminal.

_“Designation sentrybot SARGE powering up.”_

Nora’s spine turned to ice and she found her eyes drawn to a large red light in a dark corner of the room. She swallowed as a hissing, clanking noise filling the room.

“Well, I’ll be,” Ronnie chuckled, joining her. “Who’d have thought SARGE would still be here? Don’t worry, he’s-”

Nora dragged her out of the way and out of the room as the robot turned its gaze to them, and a moment later they heard the sound of stonework swallowing metal.

“He’s broken,” Nora said. “We’re not equipped to take on a sentry bot, even with the Elder’s firepower. So, we can either leave it and come back, or I see if this program works.”

“What program?” Maxson asked, joining them.

“The one my dad worked on for a bit,” she replied. “We’ve been a little busy for the last few months but he pulled together a signal disruptor and implanted it into my PipBoy. If it works, I can shut the sentrybot down from here.”

A brick flew out of the wall near Ronnie’s hand.

“Well, I don’t have a plan,” the older woman said. “General, take it away.”

Nora searched for a nearby signal, flicking down the available broadcasts until she found it. _SARGE_ , clear as day, and with a flick of a button she ran the program on the signal. The PipBoy flickered briefly, the screen jumping, and she was suddenly acutely aware of Maxson on her left, watching her, as she was finally given an options menu.

 _Deactivate_.

The sentry bot shut down loudly, beeping indignantly. Nora let out a soft laugh.

“Okay, so that works.”

“Impressive,” Maxson agreed. “Now what?”

“I’ll take it from here,” Ronnie announced, and marched back into the room. Nora followed, the Elder behind her, and the older woman leaned over the terminal, muttering to herself.

“So what kind of knowledge would you be looking for?” Nora asked.

“Whatever you can spare regarding the first Maxson,” the Elder replied. “We have sets of photographs and some holotapes he recorded, but as to information on the man himself, we only have his army records.”

“If you have his army records, what could you need from me?”

“You were a friend of his. You knew him as a person. You could accurately judge what he’d think of the Brotherhood, of its leadership.”

Nora laughed softly, looking away.

“Elder, I knew the man for five years. He was my friend, yeah. But I didn’t know much about him either. Out of my husband and I, Nate knew him better, and Nate’s lying dead in a cryopod.”

“You truly think there’s nothing you can tell me?”

“I knew his wife better than I knew him.”

“You knew his wife.”

“Yes.”

“Then you _do_ have something to offer.”

“Why so?”

“Got it!” Ronnie crowed. A nearby security door swung open. “Been a long, long time…”

She moved into the next room, and then a sad sigh met Nora’s ears.

“Well. That explains the land mines.”

Nora joined her, and found herself staring at a dead body, rotted by time, wearing a Colonial outfit similar to the one Preston walked around in. Most of it was rags, but the dark blue coat was still intact, along with a tricorn.

“This here’s General McGann,” Ronnie said. “Had your job back when the Castle was attacked. He must’ve been trapped down here when that beast attacked.”

“That poor man,” Nora murmured.

“The uniform’s yours, if you want it.”

“I’ll take the hat and coat,” the General said. “I really don’t want to touch the rest.”

Gingerly, she removed the two garments, and dusted them off, inside and out. The coat was comfortingly weighty and warm around her, and she put the tricorn on, sweeping her fringe out of the way, looking over at Ronnie with a quiet ‘ta-da!’

“There! You really look the part now,” Ronnie chuckled. “Now, let’s see if we can’t get into the armoury. After you, General.”

“Should we burn the old General?” Nora asked, pushing open the large doors. “Since we’re going to make a pyre of the dead soon.”

“If you leave the bodies out for too long, you’ll attract another Mirelurk Queen to your location,” Maxson added. “Brotherhood don’t bury their dead either.”

“Once we’ve opened the armoury up, I’ll help haul him out,” Ronnie told her, and led them up the steps. “Hey, Elder, you mind hitting that button on the wall over there?”

She pointed to a large, glowing button on the opposite wall, and Nora tried to stifle her smile as the man dutifully did as he was told. A creaking, whirring, grating sound filled the air, and the door swung open, daylight streaming in through the doorway.

“Nicely done, General!” she heard Preston call.

“Garvey, who’s free for a quick retrieval?” she asked.

“Uh, I am. What do you need?”

“Two, maybe three people to go down into the tunnels,” she gestured behind her with a thumb, “and retrieve the body of General McGann.”

“Wait, General McGann was down there?” the colonel began, stepping through the open doorway. His eyes widened as he took in the soot-covered trio, and Nora’s new clothes. “Told you you’d get a hat.”

Nora smiled.

“Ronnie and I are going to go look at the armoury. Uh, Elder, would you…what do you want to do now?”

“At the risk of sounding intrusive, I would prefer to know what the Minutemen have at their disposal,” the man admitted, brushing black muck off his coat. “So I can size up your, uh, firepower.”

Ronnie moved down the hall and Nora shrugged.

“I doubt we’ve got something like the Prydwen hiding in our armoury,” she laughed, following her.

“Even so.”

“Well, you can inspect it with me, but…”

“I appreciate the show of trust.”

“Here we are!” Ronnie crowed, pushing open the doors. “Well, looks like it’s still intact.”

Nora joined her, gazing over the room. There was a row of turrets on one of the shelves, an armour and weapons workstation, fusion cells, boxes of ammunition, and a Fatman perched up above the turrets.

“All right,” she began slowly, “this is nice.”

“It’s impressive,” Maxson agreed. “Particularly for a small militia.”

Ronnie strode across the floor, and lifted some thick rolls of paper from a table at the opposite end.

“And the cream of the crop. Artillery plans.”

 _Oh_.

“Artillery,” Nora repeated.

“Yep! Oh, we used to rain down fire upon deathclaws and super mutants! It was something back in its day, I tell you.”

“What’s the range on the artillery?” Maxson asked curiously. Nora made her way over to Ronnie, taking the plans. Her eyes scanned the old, slightly faded drawings, and she bit her lip.

_Well. Maxson has a balloon. But, it looks like I have a pin._

“Not sure,” Ronnie admitted. “Once we build ‘em, we’ll know. I never built the things.”

Nora handed the plans back to her. “Give these to my dad, if he’s finished arguing with Lorenz. I’ll get this stuff inventoried.”

Ronnie saluted. “Yes ma’am.” She strode out of the door, and moment later, they could hear her barking at Preston to ‘be more damn careful with that, it’s a body, not a sack of tatos.’

“Thanks for coming to help,” Nora began, offering the silent Elder a smile. “You didn’t have to, and I appreciate that.”

“I’d rather we maintained allies in the Commonwealth. I’m not interested in warring with the local populace, and I felt like I should deal with its leader directly.”

“Well, you won’t have to deal with me for a few days.”

“Because you’re going to the Glowing Sea.”

“That’s right.”

“Perhaps, before you go, you and your men would be willing to help me? The Brotherhood has a mission coming up that it could use your aid with.”

“All right, what is it?”

“There’s a strategic position near the Prydwen called Fort Strong. Do you know it?”

“I know _of_ it. Super mutants squatting all over the place, right?”

“That’s correct. They’re sitting on a pile of mini nukes.”

“Oh Jesus.”

“Exactly.”

“You want my help securing the place?”

“If you can help secure that stockpile, you’ll cement the Brotherhood’s opinion of you. As I’m sure you’ve seen, the Wasteland doesn’t exactly have the resources required for us to be as giving as we’d like.”

Her head tilted.

“And I suppose you still want to trade information?”

“Of course.”

She nodded, looking over at the Fatman briefly.

“All right. Give me a few days to heal and get my people organised. After this, I’m gathering a team and heading straight to the Glowing Sea.”

“I understand.”

“Thankyou again,” she added. “Not just for the assist down in the tunnels. For sending Kent, for helping out with the medical aid and the suits. I appreciate it. It means a lot.”

Maxson looked at her, and a tiny smile quirked at the corner of his mouth.

Nora felt her stomach flip over and fill with butterflies at the same time.

“You’re welcome, General.”


	26. Chapter 26

“Are you really going to get us working together?” MacCready asked. Nora looked up from her plate of food and the pencil fell out of her hair. She caught it, pushing the plate aside and looking back over her father’s copies of the artillery plans for a moment before answering.

“They have an airship filled with soldiers, Bobby,” she pointed out. “We both want the Institute gone, and together we’d have enough firepower to do it.” 

“Got nothing to do with Elder Maxson, right?” Maria murmured. “And the coat. And the jumpsuit. And the rest.”

“Maria!”

“Is now an appropriate time to ask about your comment on him being…uh..”

Nora’s eyes swivelled to Preston.

“The thing I said? About the offspring?” she asked. He nodded. “If…you really want to.”

“No, no, it’s not pressing. It can wait. You’ve gotta eat and get ready to help the Brotherhood out. But, I do want to know.”

“Speaking of which, Preston, you and Ronnie are in charge whilst I’m in the Glowing Sea. I’ll leave you my PipBoy frequency but I’m not sure what the radiation storms will do for broadcasting.”

“You’re not going alone, are you?” Preston asked.

“No,” Nora assured him. “Dad and I talked about it. He’s coming with me.”

“Just the two of you?” MacCready protested. “C’mon, you’re not serious.”

“Well, who else can I bring?” she sighed.  

“I don’t know. Maybe the Brotherhood will send that Kent guy out with you.”

Maria suddenly swallowed her water incorrectly and choked.

“We’ll see what Elder Maxson says,” Nora decided. “He might be willing to send a soldier with us.”

“Am I coming with you to the Prydwen?” Theo asked.

“If that’s okay.”

Her father smirked.

“A ghoul aboard the Brotherhood flag ship? I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

Nora put her plate aside.

“Are the Brotherhood camped out by their vertibird or…?”

“I think I saw them clearing out that old diner earlier,” the mercenary replied. “Why’d you ask?”

“I’m going to see if they need any supplies.”

“C’mon, they’re grownups.”

“They’re _allies_ , Bobby. Besides, they’ve spent the entire day helping us out. It would be rude to just ignore them.”

“Look, boss, I’m not trying to tell you what to do-”

Nora stood, closing her eyes with a sigh.

“Mac, I get it. You have a grudge. I’m going to need you to let it go. Or at least hold off on it. The Minutemen and Brotherhood have a common enemy.”

“Would you like me to come with you?” Curie asked.

“Uh, sweetheart, that’s a bad idea,” Theo said quickly. “The Brotherhood doesn’t like synths.”

“Oh, that is a shame.”

“I’ll go alone,” Nora announced. “It’s a minute walk between here and there. Unless…Mathers?”

Maria seemed suddenly concerned with slurping down the contents of her can.

“All right, I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

She picked her hat up from the table and set it atop her head, clambering away from the bench and the Minutemen that had gathered around the old kitchen. There were a few errant ‘generals’ directed her way as she made her way through the mass of people sitting on the floor, and she offered encouraging smiles to the ones who met her eyes.

Outside, the sun was setting, but the evening was still warm. Part of the courtyard was still busy with Minutemen, and Ronnie was smoking over by the workbench. Nora inhaled deeply and enjoyed the smell of the sea for a moment.

She started moving again, heading towards the rundown diner. Already, she could see that it had been cleared entirely of its former contents, which were now stacked up against the walls outside, covering the windows. She could see two figures ahead of her, and Nora paused, her face flushing. It wasn’t unusual for manual labour to cause someone to become dirty or dusty. So she could understand the fact that both Kent and Elder Maxson were trying to clean themselves up after the day they’d spent assisting her troops – Maxson had been wearing smears of soot since the turret had exploded, and Kent’s armour had clearly not protected him from dust.

What was incredibly distracting was the fact that both Paladin and Elder were stripped to the waist.

Nora spun on her heel, and decided that perhaps she could give them an hour to clean up.

“General?” the Elder suddenly called, just as she was working up the self-control to leave. She turned her head, just a little.

Water glistened off the pale skin that hadn’t been covered by his hastily zipped up suit, and Nora quietly reminded her body and dormant libido that she had lost the love of her life, as well as the life she’d had before the war. Her body was apparently not interested in listening.

“I came to ask if you needed anything,” Nora told him quickly. “I just wanted to make sure you were comfortable.”

His hair was still wet.

“We’ve had some difficulty with ensuring Ingram is accommodated for,” the Elder informed her. “Other than that, the main discomfort is readjusting to sleeping outside of the Prydwen. Some of us haven’t laid our heads anywhere else for months.”

“I can understand that,” she managed, ignoring the hand he slid through the wet black locks. “I’ve spent most of my time in one settlement and haven’t moved for a while. Co-ordinated the Minutemen from home.”

“I would have thought your duties meant you were mostly mobile,” he began, voice tinged with confusion. He reached into his pocket, and brought out a pack of cigarettes.

“Oh, I got sick,” Nora said. “For a while. Preston did a lot of travelling whilst I was recovering. I owe him.” She paused, and her eyes fell on the white packet. “You know those things will kill you, right?”

And she hadn’t meant the cocked hip or the teasing smile, but they came out anyway.

Maxson stopped, his brow furrowing a little, and looked down at the packet.

“I’m sorry?”

“They cause lung cancer,” she explained. “It wasn’t all that common knowledge back before the war but they can knock years off your life if you smoke long enough.”

“Most soldiers don’t live long enough for small luxuries to catch up with them,” Maxson replied, putting the packet away. “Still. I appreciate your advice, General.”

There were a few stray locks of black hair plastered to his face and she looked back towards the little lake to squash her desire to push them back into place.

“So, am I correct in assuming that once we’re done here, I’ll be accompanying you to the Prydwen, or…?”

When she looked back at him his hair was in place.

 “I would return with my crew first before I escorted you and whoever you want to bring as a delegate aboard,” he began. “Depending on the time and how much information you’d want, the mission could be launched immediately afterwards.”

“Would you be planning to stay much longer?”

“Unfortunately, my duties mean I don’t have the time I’d like to remain off the Prydwen for longer than a day or two,” he replied. “I could spare one more full day before our Lancer Captain would _prefer_ that I return to the ship. Besides, the Proctors have their own tasks. I brought a valuable set of skills with me because I knew you…and your men would need them. Unfortunately, they can’t be spared for much longer.”

“I appreciate your help.”

“I’m returning a favour.” There was a pause. “And your name is not something to be taken lightly, either.”

“Yes…well, you’re…going to have to bring me up to speed on why,” she admitted with a small laugh. “Usually my name is important because it means I come strolling in with a rifle and 3 friends to help clear out whatever’s squatting by the bins.”

“I assure you, it’s far more-”

He stopped himself.

“It’s of great historical value to the Brotherhood.”

“How many people can fit in a Vertibird?” she asked, before an awkward silence could settle on them.

“Large vehicles can fit six, but the smallest can only take up to three. How large a delegation would you plan on bringing?”

“Just my father.”

“I see.”

“He’d have power armour.”

“And would you head directly into the Sea afterwards, then? Just the two of you?”

“I believe so. We’ve got stores of Radaway ready.”

“I can offer you assistance, should you need it.”

She shot him a curious look. “You’d accompany us?”

“Unfortunately, no. But I could send extra firepower with you. Paladin Danse wrote some glowing reports about you.” He paused. “If you’ll pardon the unintended pun.”

“I don’t mind.”

“And Paladin Kent has spoken highly of you too. Both have already offered their arms in aid for your mission.”

“I’d appreciate it, so long as you don’t mind.”

“You have a plan to get into the Institute,” the Elder said frankly. “I plan on destroying the Institute. If our goals can align, I will do everything in my power to ensure that happens.”

His hair had dried a little more now. Nora nodded, noting the dark sky.

“Well, unless you need anything, I’ll get back to my people and start talking through our tactics for my absence.”

“I understand. Ad Victoriam, General.”


End file.
